Did bird strike contribute to South Korea plane crash? What we know | Global News Avenue

The accident killed more than 170 people Plane crashes while landing in South Korea Sunday morning.

The Jeju Air plane overran the runway and then crashed into a wall at Muan International Airport in the country’s southwest.

The plane was returning from Bangkok, Thailand, with 181 people on board, 179 of whom died. Two crew members were rescued from the wreckage.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, which fire officials said may have been caused by a bird strike and bad weather.

Flight 7C2216 is a Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korea’s most popular low-cost airline Jeju Air.

The plane arrived in Muan at around 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT).

A South Korean transport official said the plane attempted to land but was delayed after air traffic control issued a bird strike warning – an alert about the risk of collision with birds.

About two minutes later, the pilot called for help and Air Traffic Control cleared the plane to land in the opposite direction, the official said.

According to local media reports, a passenger on the flight sent a message to a relative saying that a bird was “stuck on the wing” and the plane was unable to land.

One video appears to show the plane landing without the use of wheels or any other landing gear. It slid down the runway and hit a wall, then burst into flames.

One witness told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency that they heard a “loud bang” followed by “a series of explosions.”

Video from the scene showed the plane on fire and thick smoke rising into the sky. Firefighters put out the fire.

Lee Jung-hyun, chief of the Muan City Fire Department, said in a televised briefing that the tail of the plane could be identified, but “the shape of the rest of the plane could not be identified.”

He said bird strikes and bad weather may have contributed to the crash, but the exact cause was still under investigation. The plane’s flight recorder and voice recorder have been recovered.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the head of Jeju Air management said that the crash was not caused by “any maintenance issues.”

South Korea’s transportation department said the flight’s chief pilot had held the position since 2019 and had more than 6,800 hours of flying experience.

A bird strike is a collision between a flying aircraft and a bird. It’s common – more than 1,400 bird strikes were reported in the UK in 2022, of which only around 100 affected aircraft Civil Aviation Administration data.

The most famous bird strike occurred in 2009, when Airbus plane crashes into New York’s Hudson River After a collision with a flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew survived.

Professor Doug Drury, who teaches aeronautics at Central Queensland University in Australia, wrote in an article published in Science magazine: dialogue This summer, Boeing planes were equipped with turbofan engines that could be seriously damaged in a bird strike.

He said pilots are trained to be especially vigilant in the early morning or at sunset, when birds are most active.

The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members. Authorities said two of the passengers were Thai and the rest were believed to be Korean. Many are believed to have returned from a Christmas holiday in Thailand.

The official death toll was 179, making it the deadliest air crash in South Korean history.

All passengers and four crew members died.

Authorities have so far identified 88 bodies.

Citing the passenger manifest, authorities said five of the dead were children under 10 years old. The youngest passenger was a 3-year-old boy and the oldest was 78 years old.

South Korea’s National Fire Service said two crew members, a man and a woman, survived the incident. They were found at the rear of the plane after the accident and were taken to hospital.

As part of the recovery effort, more than 1,500 emergency personnel have been deployed, including 490 fire personnel and 455 police officers. They have been scouring the area around the runway for parts of the plane and people on board.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok declared Muan a special disaster area, providing central government funds to local governments and victims.

All flights to and from Muan International Airport have been cancelled.

Families of the victims of the crash have gone to the airport, hoping to find out what happened to their loved ones. Reuters video footage showed officials reading the victims’ names aloud.

Airport authorities and the Red Cross set up more than a dozen tents at the airport for the families of the victims to mourn privately.

Cries echoed throughout the terminal. Some are frustrated by how long it takes to identify a body.

Jeju Air has apologized to the family. The airline’s chief executive told a news conference that the airline had no history of accidents. Sunday’s crash is believed to be the airline’s only fatal accident since it was founded in 2005.

Plane manufacturer Boeing expressed its condolences to those affected.

Choi Cheon-kai, acting president of South Korea, said: “I express my deepest condolences to the many victims of the incident. I will make every effort to allow the injured to recover as soon as possible.”

The government has declared a period of national mourning for the next seven days, and flags in government offices will be flown at half-mast.