International Courant
The wreckage of the Jeju Air airplane that went off the runway and crashed lies at Muan Worldwide Airport in Muan, South Korea on December 30, 2024.
Kim Hong-ji | Reuters
Aviation consultants are questioning the function of an airport design that positioned a pile of dust and a concrete wall alongside the tip of a runway that Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 crashed into on Sunday morning, killing all however two of the 181 folks on board.
The airplane, one Boeing 737-800, landed stomach down on the runway of Muan Worldwide Airport in southwestern South Korea after an evening flight, apparently with flaps and touchdown gear retracted. The jet caught fireplace after it hit the dust and wall, the place a localizer was put in, which guides plane to the runway.
“That actually made it troublesome to cease the airplane safely,” mentioned Todd Curtis, founding father of Air Secure Media, which tracks aviation accidents and different incidents. Curtis labored at Boeing for nearly ten years as a security engineer.
It should take crash investigators months, if not longer, to find out the reason for the crash, South Korea’s worst-ever air catastrophe and the deadliest crash in years. They are going to look at every thing from plane upkeep data to pilot scheduling and engine to cockpit voice recorders.
Relations of the victims of the Jeju Air crash react as officers maintain a briefing at Muan Worldwide Airport in Muan, South Korea, on December 30, 2024.
Kim Soo-hyeon | Reuters
Early proof suggests {that a} chook strike might have performed a key function in attainable engine loss. Specialists warned that the investigation continues to be at a really early stage.
Some aviation consultants say the variety of fatalities might have been minimized had the airplane not hit the concrete wall.
In a video of the Jeju Air flight touchdown, “you see the airplane skidding, it slows down, they decelerate and every thing goes fairly properly as much as the place they” hit the wall, mentioned John Cox, an aviation security advisor. and a Boeing 737 pilot.
Cox mentioned he suspects the reason for dying for a lot of the passengers on board might be “blunt power trauma from hitting the wall.”
Boundaries alongside airport runways are widespread and advisable by worldwide and different aviation authorities.
Within the US, the Federal Aviation Administration requires a security zone about 500 toes huge and 1,000 toes past the tip of the runway to restrict injury ought to a airplane overrun the runway. However the FAA says there are different mitigation strategies below its Runway Security Space Program as a result of many U.S. runways had been constructed earlier than the usual was established.
“Whereas the unique RSA enchancment tasks have been accomplished, this system continues to evolve to handle security dangers and plan for future enhancements,” the company mentioned.
For instance, New York’s LaGuardia Airport and different airports have put in specifically designed materials arresting methods, or EMAS – a compressible materials that slows a airplane previous the runway and prevents it from rolling into extra harmful areas. In 2016, then-vice presidential candidate Mike Pence’s airplane flew over a runway close to LaGuardia and was finally stopped by EMAS.
In keeping with video footage and professional evaluation, the barrier on the fringe of the runway at Muan Worldwide Airport didn’t seem like fragile or able to falling aside, one thing investigators are prone to give attention to.
Why was there a wall on the finish of the runway?
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