Specialists question fowl strike as cause for South Korea airplane crash By Reuters

By Bart Meijer and Lisa Barrington

(Reuters) -Uncertainty surrounds the deadliest airplane crash on South Korean soil, aviation consultants talked about on Sunday, questioning how rather a lot have an effect on a doable fowl strike cited by authorities might have had in bringing down the Jeju Air flight.

The plain absence of landing gear, the timing of the twin-engine Boeing (NYSE:) 737-800’s abdomen landing at Muan Worldwide Airport and the experiences of a possible fowl strike all raised questions that may not however be answered.

The one-aisle airplane was seen in video broadcast on native media skidding down the runway with no landing gear deployed sooner than hitting a wall in an explosion of flame and particles.

“At this stage there are way more questions than now we have now options. Why was the airplane going so fast? Why have been the flaps not open? Why was the landing gear not down?” talked about Gregory Alegi, an aviation skilled and former coach at Italy’s air stress academy.

South Korean officers are investigating the crash of Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, along with the have an effect on of a doable fowl strike and the local weather. 179 of 181 people on board died.

Deputy Transport Minister Joo Jong-wan talked about the runway’s 2,800-metre dimension was not a contributing situation, and that partitions on the ends have been constructed to commerce necessities.

A spokesperson for Jeju Air was not immediately obtainable for comment. Jeju Air declined to the touch upon the set off all through info conferences, saying an investigation is beneath means.

Christian Beckert, a flight safety skilled and Lufthansa pilot, talked about the video footage urged that other than the reversers, numerous the airplane’s braking methods weren’t activated, making a “large disadvantage” and a fast landing.

Beckert talked about a fowl strike was unlikely to have damaged the landing gear whereas it was nonetheless up, and that if it had occurred when it was down, it’ll have been arduous to spice up as soon as extra.

“It’s really, really very unusual and actually unusual to not lower the gear, on account of there are neutral methods the place we’re in a position to lower the gear with an alternate system,” he talked about.

The probe ought to color a clearer picture, he added.

Beneath worldwide aviation pointers, South Korea will lead a civil investigation and comprise the Nationwide Transportation Safety Board within the US the place the airplane was made.

Specialists say air accidents are usually attributable to a cocktail of issues and that it could take months to piece collectively the sequence of events.

The flight information 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 officers talked about.

Australian aviation information Trevor Jensen talked about fireplace and emergency suppliers would often be ready for a abdomen landing, “so this appears to be unplanned”.

CHAIN OF EVENTS

Throughout the space of some minutes, the administration tower issued a fowl strike warning, pilots declared mayday after which tried to land, officers talked about, although it was not clear whether or not or not the airplane had hit any birds.

“A fowl strike isn’t unusual, points with an undercarriage mustn’t unusual. Hen strikes happen way more usually, nonetheless generally they don’t set off the dearth of an airplane by themselves,” talked about Airline Data editor Geoffrey Thomas.

A fowl strike might have impacted the CFM Worldwide engines if a flock had been sucked into them, nonetheless that will not have shut them down straightaway, giving the pilots some time to react, Australian airline safety skilled Geoffrey Dell (NYSE:) talked about.

After the fowl strike warning and the mayday declaration, the pilots tried to land on the runway from the opposite approach, a transport ministry official talked about.

That change of plan raised additional questions for investigators, talked about Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New School and a former pilot.

“It was modified to the opposite approach fairly late as successfully, which added to the workload,” Chan talked about. “It’s various guessing video video games at this stage.”

The captain of the Boeing 737-800 airplane had labored at that rank since 2019 and logged 6,823 flight hours, the South Korean authorities talked about. The first officer had labored at that rank since 2023 and had logged roughly 1,650 flight hours.

The 737-800 is doubtless one of many world’s most flown airliners with a usually sturdy safety file. It was developed successfully sooner than the MAX variant involved in a contemporary Boeing safety catastrophe.

Birds hitting the airplane alone have been unlikely to elucidate the scale of the disaster, talked about Italian aviation skilled Alegi.

“In truth there may want been a fowl strike,” he talked about. “Nonetheless the penalties are rather a lot too large for that to be the direct cause for the accident.”