Page of the week South Korean low-cost airline The Jeju Air crash is being combed by American investigators, with some from the plane’s manufacturer.
All but two of the 181 people on board Boeing 737-800 was killed in what was South Korea’s deadliest plane crash in decades. Investigators hope evidence gathered from the scene will help them understand why the pilot attempted to land after declaring an emergency.
A pre-flight inspection found “no problems”, the airline said, according to the BBC.
Flight data such as speed, altitude, fuel level and cockpit voice recordings will be examined by the plane’s two separately located flight recorders, commonly referred to as black boxes, The Guardian reported.
South Korean military soldiers are pictured at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, on Tuesday after a plane crashed there on Sunday. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Aviation safety experts on Tuesday questioned the placement of an airport embankment that a passenger plane hit after it skidded off the runway, as video showed.
Comments in the airport’s operations manual, transferred in early 2024, said the embankment was too close to the end of the runway and recommended that the location of the equipment be reviewed during the planned expansion, Reuters reported.
PLANE VERSES OFF RUNWAY OF AIRPORT IN SOUTH KOREA AND CRASHES, 179 DIE: REPORTS
A monument is seen outside Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Experts from the US National Transportation Safety Board and the US-South Korea Joint Investigation Team are pictured at the scene of Sunday’s plane crash at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, on Tuesday. (Son Hyung-joo/Yonhap via AP)
The South Korean government has initiated safety inspections of all 101 Boeing 737-800s in the country. The Transport Ministry said authorities are looking at maintenance and operation records during the five-day safety checks, which will last until Friday.
The ministry said a delegation of eight US investigators – one from the Federal Aviation Administration, three from the National Transportation Safety Board and four from Boeing – visited the crash site on Tuesday. The results of their examination were not immediately available.
South Korean army soldiers work outside Muan International Airport on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Although it will likely take months to determine the cause of the crash, Lee Jeong-hyeon, head of the Muan Fire Station, said earlier that workers are investigating various possibilities, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds.
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“A bird hitting the engine could kill the engine, but there are so many redundant systems there that it just doesn’t make sense. We’re not in the dark, but we know the runway is 9,200 feet. It’s a very long runway It [the plane] he came hot and high, hot and fast. We don’t know why that was a real problem,” aviation consultant Mike Boyd told Fox News Sunday.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
