South Korea launched a “comprehensive inspection” of all Boeing 737-800 planes used by the country’s airlines on Monday, the day after the accident of one of these planes in Muan (southwest) caused 179 deaths out of 181 passengers.
A video of the crash that occurred on Sunday morning, broadcast by the local channel MBC, went around the world: we see a plane landing at Muan airport (southwest) on its belly, smoke escaping from its engines, before hitting a wall at the end of the runway and being engulfed in flames.
This Boeing 737-800 from the South Korean low-cost airline Jeju Air, coming from Bangkok, was carrying 175 travelers and six crew members. All its passengers were killed, according to the final assessment of the emergency services, with the exception of a hostess and a steward.
The people on board, two Thai nationals and the rest South Korean citizens, ranged in age from three to 78 years old.
The identities of 146 of the 179 deaths have been confirmed so far, according to Vice Minister of Aviation Joo Jong-wan, who announced that Seoul had launched a “full inspection” of the 101 Boeing 737-800s used by companies in the country.
The country declared a seven-day national mourning and flags were flown at half-mast, with interim President Choi Sang-mok at the scene of the tragedy for a commemoration ceremony.
According to authorities, the presumed cause of the tragedy is a collision with birds, which haunts pilots, especially when it comes to jet aircraft whose engines can quickly lose power or stop completely after sucking in a bird.
“I had a son on board”
In Muan on Monday morning, a middle-aged man and woman peered through gates at the crash site where seats, doors and twisted metal were still scattered.
“I had a son on board that plane,” an old man waiting at the airport told AFP, explaining that his body had still not been identified.
Despite the bird-collision thesis, critics are increasingly focusing on the airport’s architecture.
“Despite the emergency, the landing was remarkably well executed,” Kim Kwang-il, professor of aeronautical sciences at Silla University and former pilot, told AFP.
But “normally, there is no such solid obstacle at the end of the runway, it is against the international aviation safety standards recommended by […] the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (AUESA). The structure in question caused the plane to crash and burst into flames,” he said.
“Most of the passengers died because of this obstacle, it’s upsetting,” he laments, calling on the airport authorities to be held accountable.
In terms of the investigation, the black boxes – the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder – were found on Sunday.
The United States National Transportation Safety Agency has put together “a team of American investigators”, including Boeing, to “help” the South Korean authorities.
Same model, new incident
On Monday morning, another Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 encountered a landing gear problem, already blamed on Sunday.
“The captain communicated with ground control and, after taking additional measures, the landing gear returned to normal operation. However, it was decided to return to Gimpo airport (northwest) shortly after takeoff, Song Kyung-hoon, an official with the company, told the press.
The crash at Muan is the first fatal accident for Jeju Air, which has offered its “sincere apologies”.
South Korea’s air transport sector is considered generally reliable by experts, with such tragedies being very rare.
The deadliest accident to take place in South Korea until Sunday was the crash on a hill near Busan-Gimhae airport of an Air China Boeing 767 coming from Beijing, which caused 129 dead on April 15, 2002.
