As South Korea reels from the devastating Jeju Air plane crash that killed all but two of the 181 souls onboard on Sunday, experts have been questioning some of the actions of the pilot in the fateful four minutes before it crashed in a fireball.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800m belly-landed, skidded off the end of the runway and burst into flames as it hit an embankment at Muan International Airport on December 29 at 9am local time.
All 175 passengers and four crew were killed, making it the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil, Only two other crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail of the burning plane.
Investigators are still looking onto whether a collision with a bird or birds caused the crash, a process that is expected to take several months to piece together the sequence of events.
But as the investigation takes place, aviation experts have raised serious questions over almost every element of the crash.
One questioned how there were so many mechanical failures with the landing gear and the flaps, and how it was allowed to go so fast; another asked why the plane ‘went around’ and entered from the north.
A third asked how airport officials allowed so many birds, as many as 200,000, were allowed to live in close proximity to the travel hub, increasing the risk of a mid-flight collision.
‘At this point there are a lot more questions than we have answers. Why was the plane going so fast? Why were the flaps not open? Why was the landing gear not down?’ said Gregory Alegi, an aviation expert and former teacher at Italy‘s air force academy.
Firefighters work at the wreckage of a passenger plane at Muan International Airport on December 30, 2024 in Muan-gun, South Korea
A Jeju Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan, South Korea, crash-landed at the Muan International Airport on Sunday, December 29, 2024
Jeju Air flight 7C2216 flew from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport, on a flight path that was opened up just this month.
Data from FlightRadar24 revealed that twice in the three days prior to the crash, the plane landed from the south of the runway with no issue, before taxiing to the airport’s terminals.
But on fateful day of the crash, the plane was forced to come in from the north.
After an initial failed landing attempt, air traffic control warned the pilot of the Boeing 737-800 that there was a significant risk of a birdstrike, the industry term for a collision with a bird that could cause serious harm to a plane.
The plane then ascended again before trying to land a second time, this time with permission from air traffic control to fly in from the north of the runway.
Just two minutes later, the plane’s crew sent out a distress signal, before landing a minute after this without lowering its nose landing gear.
After the bird strike warning and the mayday declaration, the pilots attempted to land on the runway from the opposite direction, a transport ministry official said.
That change of plan raised serious questions for investigators, said Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University and a former pilot.
A victim rescued from a plane crash is transported to a hospital in Mokpo, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024
The tail of the aircraft remained largely intact after the fireball crash and the rear exits can be seen in the picture above. It is likely the cabin crew were sitting near the exits in an area behind the toilets
‘It was changed to the opposite direction fairly late as well, which added to the workload,’ Chan said. ‘It’s a lot of guessing games at this stage.’
The information vacuum about this crash comes, in part, from the little that is known about the captain of the plane, who tragically lost their life in the crash.
The South Korean government said they had worked at that rank since 2019 and logged 6,823 flight hours.
The first officer, meanwhile, had worked at that rank since 2023 and had logged approximately 1,650 flight hours.
Hwang Ho-won, chairman of the Korea Association for Aviation Security, told DNYUZ: ‘A big question is why the pilot was in such a hurry to land.’
He said that when pilots are forced into a belly landing, they will do everything they can to buy time and allow ground staff to prepare for an emergency.
But the Jeju Air pilot apparently decided that he didn’t have such time, he said.
‘Did he lose both engines? Was the decision to land in such a hurry a human error’, Hwang questioned.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216 is engulfed in flames as it slams into a wall following a crash after landing at Muan International Airport
Relatives of passengers of a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft react near a make-shift shelter at Muan International Airport in Muan on December 30, 2024
People stand as the wreckage of an aircraft lying on the ground after it went off the runway and crashed at Muan International Airport is pictured, in Muan, South Korea, December 30
A relative of passenger at Muan International Airport on December 30
A satellite image shows the area at South Korea’s Muan International Airport after the Jeju Air aircraft went off the runway and crashed, in Muan, South Korea, December 30, 2024
Erika Armstrong, a pilot and former contract worker at Boeing, told CNN that while it is uncomfortable to place blame on the crew, often plane crashes are due to human error rather than mechanical fault.
‘The spotlight will always be drawn to the pilot training,’ Armstrong said.
‘We’re definitely trying to run pilots through training much faster, trying to do it as efficiently as we can, but boy, until we hear the words from the pilot and the cockpit of what was going on, then we can spotlight where it needs to be.’
‘Never say never in aviation. We train for engine failures all the time – it’s an expectation’, she said.
Also being questioned is the airworthiness of the Boeing plane itself.
Christian Beckert, a flight safety expert and Lufthansa pilot, said the video footage suggested that aside from the reversers, most of the plane’s braking systems were not activated, creating a ‘big problem’ and a fast landing.
Beckert said a bird strike was unlikely to have damaged the landing gear while it was still up, and that if it had happened when it was down, it would have been hard to raise again.
‘It’s really, really very rare and very unusual not to lower the gear, because there are independent systems where we can lower the gear with an alternate system,’ he said.
Police forensics personnel and National Bureau of Investigation officials work at the scene of the crash
Recovery teams work at the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan on December 30, 2024
The wrecked tail section of the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft that crashed and burst into flames is seen at the end of the runway at Muan International Airport in Muan on December 30, 2024
Investigators stand at the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan
The probe should paint a clearer picture, he added.
One experienced captain told German newspaper Bild that it remains unknown as to why the plane’s landing gear did not extent during its second landing attempt.
‘A warning signal sounds in the cockpit if the landing gear is not extended’, they said.
‘If the hydraulic system fails, the landing gear can also be extended using gravity extension’, the pilot added.
Robert Sumwalt, the former NTSB chair, told CBS News: ‘I flew 737s for 10 years as a captain, and I can say that the landing gear can be manually deployed, so the real question will be, what set up the sequence of events here?
‘Did the bird strike set up the sequence of events where the crew got rushed and did not deploy the landing gear? I doubt that there was any sort of a malfunction with the gear, given that it can be deployed manually and through the normal means.’
Despite this, he was reticent to place blame on the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing, which has this year faced severe scrutiny over the safety of its planes.
‘I think it’s very important to separate this crash … from the issues that Boeing has had over the recent past’, he said.
‘This airplane is 15 years old, so it was probably not a manufacturing issue if the airplane is that old and flew thousands of hours. It’s not a design issue. So I don’t think that Boeing is going to take a direct hit because of this one.’
Sunday’s crash was the worst for any South Korean airline in decades
Another major factor investigators will be looking at is the birdstrike, and the prevalence of waterfowl in the area surrounding the airport.
Joo Yong-gi, the 57-year-old director of the Ecological Culture Research Institute, told local media that the area around the airport ‘is a route for migratory birds’, adding that it is ‘highly likely that bird collisions will occur in the future’ at Muan International Airport.
The bird expert said he witnesses a flock of 200,000 whooper swans near Muan Airport at around 6 p.m. on the 29th, the day of the Jeju Air passenger plane crash.
‘A bird strike is not unusual, problems with an undercarriage are not unusual. Bird strikes happen far more often, but typically they don’t cause the loss of an airplane by themselves,’ said Airline News editor Geoffrey Thomas.
A bird strike could have impacted the plane’s CFM International engines if a flock had been sucked into them, but that would not have shut them down straightaway, giving the pilots some time to react, Australian airline safety expert Geoffrey Dell said.
Birds hitting the plane alone were unlikely to explain the scale of the disaster, said Italian aviation expert Gregory Alegi.
‘Of course there might have been a bird strike,’ he said. ‘But the consequences are much too big for that to be the direct cause of the accident.’
One possible factor may have been the structure of the airport. Experts called the architect’s decision to place a concrete barrier at the southern tip of the runway ‘irresponsible.’
Firefighters search the wreckage of the plane, after the disaster that killed 179 people
The Jeju Air aircraft is seen going down the runway before crashing
The wreckage of flight 7C2216 at Muan International Airport
‘I just cannot think of anything more irresponsible than what (South Korea aviation officials) have done,’ said Shawn Pruchnicki, an assistant professor in the college of engineering at Ohio State University.
‘In my opinion, they are responsible for the amount of people that were killed because of that design.’
He added that the crash would not have been as deadly had it not been for the concrete embankment.
‘It’s just uncomfortable that you would put a concrete barrier, because what that does is that guarantees destruction and death to the occupants of an airplane that’s going to hit,’ Pruchnicki said.
Air safety expert David Learmount agreed, telling the BBC that had the ‘obstruction’ not been there, the plane ‘would have come to rest with most – possibly all – those on board still alive’.
Learmount believed that the pilot’s landing was ‘as good as a flapless/gearless touchdown could be: wings level, nose not too high to avoid breaking the tail’ and the plane had not sustained substantial damage as it slid along the runway.
‘The reason so many people died was not the landing as such, but the fact that the aircraft collided with a very hard obstruction just beyond the runway end,’ he said.
South Korea’s acting-president Choi Sang-mok pays tribute to the victims of the December 29 Jeju Air plane crash
Sirithon Chaue, 22, was among 179 passengers and crew killed when the Boeing 737 exploded in a fireball at Muan International Airport
Kang Ko, 43, and his wife Jin Lee Seon, 37, shared pictures of their first family holiday on Instagram before their tragic deaths on the flight
Kang Ko shared pictures of his family’s holiday on Instagram, including one of him excitedly looking out of the plane window as they flew to Thailand
There may also be deeper issue at play with the airport.
Muan International has the highest rate of birdstrikes of any South Korean air travel hub, according to local media, with 10 incidents recorded between 2019 and August 2024.
With 11,004 flights operating at the airport over this period, this translate to a strike rate of 0.09%.
On top of this, there have been concerns of the airport’s exposure to birdstrikes since it was opened in 2007.
While environmental impact assessments flagged birdstrikes as a significant risk during its planning phase, the implementation of measures like sound cannons, lasers, and warning lights to scare birds away has reportedly been delayed for years due to ongoing runway extension work.
The airport’s operational readiness has also come under heavy scrutiny.
Local media reported that despite running for 17 years, it only began running international flights this month.
The company that operates the airport, the Korea Airports Corporation, has been without a CEO for eight straight months after its previous leader resigned in April.
Relatives of passengers of a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft gather at a make-shift shelter at Muan International Airport in Muan
An unverified video grab reportedly of the Jeju Air plane shows a burst of fire coming out of the jet’s right engine supposedly showing the moment the bird struck
Rescue workers work near the wreckage of the Jeju Air aircraft that went off the runway and crashed at Muan International Airport
Mourners react near the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport
Whatever happens, investigators will need several months to fully dissect the tragedy, and understand how to prevent further incidents like this from taking place.
Much of the inquiry will revolve around the plane’s blackbox.
The flight data recorder was found at 11:30 a.m. (0230 GMT), about two and a half hours after the crash, and the cockpit voice recorder at 2:24 p.m., South Korean officials said.
It has since been moved to a research centre at Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport ahead of analysis
‘I think the cockpit voice recorder, if they’re able to read that out, that will be key to unlocking this mystery,’ Robert Sumwalt, former chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, told CBS News.
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