Seoul announces full inspection of all Boeing aircraft

South Korea has announced it is starting a “full inspection” of its Boeing 737-800s operated by the country’s airlines after 179 people died yesterday when a flight of the same model crashed at Muan International Airport. This was stated by the Vice Minister of Civil Aviation, Joo Jong-wan. “Maintenance records of key systems such as engines and landing gear will be thoroughly examined for 101 planes operated by six airlines using the same model as the accident plane,” he said, adding that the inspection will last until January 3rd.

A Jeju Air low-cost airline flight that took off from South Korea today returned to its departure airport due to the same landing gear problem found in the fatal accident involving a plane of the same model yesterday. This was reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap. Flight 7C101 departed at 6.37am local time from Gimpo International Airport in the northwestern province of Gyeonggi. And it detected a landing gear problem shortly after takeoff. The South Korean airline then informed the 161 passengers of the mechanical defect and returned the flight to the same airport at 7.25am. In yesterday’s Jeju Air crash, which claimed 179 lives in southwestern Muan county, all three landing gears are believed to have malfunctioned. The plane involved was a Boeing B737-800, the same model as the one that was returned to Gimpo this morning. The South Korean low-cost airline operates 39 aircraft of this model, out of a fleet of 41 aircraft.

A Jeju Air Boeing carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed upon landing at Muan International Airport against a barrier and caught fire: all 181 passengers on board died except for two flight attendants who were extracted still alive from the wreckage. Among the hypotheses indicated by the authorities as the cause of the accident – the worst air disaster ever to occur in the country already shaken by a profound political crisis – the impact with a flock of birds.

The videos released online show the plane landing on its belly, that is, without the landing gear open, skidding, leaving the runway with smoke from the engines, and then finishing its run against a wall and exploding. The impact against the barrier threw the passengers out of the Boeing and destroyed it almost completely: only the tail remained recognizable among the wreckage. Rescuers managed to extract alive almost immediately two flight attendants, a man and a woman, who were sitting in the rear part of the plane. From that moment, a slow count of the dead began until the final toll of 179 victims, (including two Thai citizens and 4 crew members) “of which 65 have been identified”, say the authorities, specifying that the recognition of other deaths through DNA sampling.

In the Muan terminal, tearful relatives huddled together in pain waiting for information, while the names, dates of birth and nationalities of the victims appeared on the screens of the airport which usually indicate departures and arrivals. The rescue services are now examining various possibilities as to the causes of the accident, including that the plane was the victim of a ‘bird strike’ (impact with a flock of birds) which damaged the plane’s landing gear systems, already in difficulties due to unfavorable weather conditions. Both black boxes have been recovered: the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

According to an initial reconstruction, the control tower had raised the alarm for a flock of birds just six minutes before the Boeing crashed. The alarm was raised at 8.57, the pilot immediately declared mayday at 8.58 attempting to land at 9.00, but crashed three minutes later, at 9.03, while touching down without the landing gear. “During the attempted landing on Runway No. 1, the control tower issued a bird strike warning and the pilot declared mayday shortly thereafter,” Transport Ministry officials said. At that point, clearance was granted to land in the opposite direction on the runway, after which the pilot attempted to touch down until he overshot the runway and collided with a fence wall.

During the press conference, Kim E-base, the CEO of Jeju Air, one of the largest South Korean low-cost airlines, and other executives bowed in apology while messages of condolence arrived from many quarters. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, offered condolences and expressed the EU’s solidarity with the families of the victims and with South Korea. “Our thoughts go to the many families who are grieving following the dramatic plane crash. I join in prayer for the survivors and the dead”, said Pope Francis at the Angelus on Sunday morning in St. Peter’s. Plane accidents are very rare in South Korea: the most serious one was the crash of an Air China Boeing 767 from Beijing on a hill near Busan-Gimhae airport which caused 129 deaths on 15 April 2002.

This is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of the largest South Korean low-cost airlines, founded in 2005. “We will do everything we can to respond to this accident. We bow our heads and apologize to all those who were harmed” , the company said in a statement published on its social channels. On August 12, 2007, a Jeju Air Bombardier Q400 carrying 74 passengers skidded off the runway due to strong winds at Busan-Gimhae Airport, causing about ten minor injuries.

An awake and responsive survivor in the hospital

One of the two survivors of the plane crash in which 179 people lost their lives in South Korea has woken up in hospital and is responsive. This was reported by Yonhap News Agency. The 33-year-old, surnamed Lee, was a flight attendant on the Jeju Air plane that caught fire after a crash landing at Muan International Airport this morning. He was initially taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Mokpo, but was later transferred to Ewha University Hospital in Seoul. “When I woke up, I had already been rescued,” he told doctors, according to hospital director Ju Woong who explained that he had not yet asked the patient for details of the accident. “He is perfectly capable of communicating,” Ju said. “There is no indication yet of memory loss or similar symptoms.” The survivor is currently being treated in the intensive care unit after being diagnosed with multiple fractures. The other survivor, a 25-year-old stewardess surnamed Koo, is being treated at the Asan Medical Center in eastern Seoul, and is said to be in stable condition.

Expert, ‘without a concrete wall everyone would be alive in Korea’

Without the concrete wall into which the Jeju Air flight crashed at the end of the runway, “everyone would be alive now.” This is stated by David Learmont, an aviation expert consulted by Sky News on the tragedy, adding that airports should not have such a wall at the end of a runway. According to the expert, the plane would have stopped in any case, even if its landing gear had failed. “When it slid off the end of the runway, it wasn’t on fire. The plane was completely under control,” he said. “In the actual landing, the plane was perfectly level with the wings. It had been handled very, very well” and “it was fine up until the moment it hit the wall. If there hadn’t been the wall, now everyone they would be alive.” According to Learmount, the key to understanding the cause of the crash will be to find out why the pilot failed to put down the plane’s flaps or landing gear, without which the plane landed much faster than it should have. “The captain had issued a distress call” which was “all-encompassing” and did not specify the reason.

Alarm for flock of birds minutes before the crash

The airport control tower in South Korea had raised the alarm about a flock of birds just six minutes before a Jeju Air Boeing carrying 181 people crashed in the southwestern county of Muan. This was stated by the South Korean Ministry of Transport, quoted by the Yonhap agency.

The control tower issued the alarm at 8.57am, according to a press conference by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which oversees aviation safety. The pilot immediately declared mayday at 8:58 a.m., attempting to land at 9 a.m., but crashed three minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., while touching down without landing gear, he said.

“During the attempted landing on Runway No. 1, the control tower issued a bird strike warning and the pilot declared mayday shortly thereafter,” ministry officials said. At that point, they explained, the control tower granted clearance to land in the opposite direction on the runway, after which the pilot attempted to touch down until he overshot the runway and crashed into a fence wall. .

According to data from the Korea Airports Corp. (KAC), Muan International Airport reported 10 incidents involving flocks of birds from 2019 to August this year.

Witnesses to the disaster: ‘First the flames, then the roar’

First the flames, then some explosions. This is what some witnesses told the Yonap agency regarding the plane crash that occurred this morning in South Korea.

The Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 skidded during landing and crashed into a fence at Muan International Airport, about 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul, at around 9:07 this morning. Videos broadcast by local television stations show the plane attempting to land without its landing gear.

Yoo Jae-yong, 41, who lives near the airport, said he saw a spark on the plane’s right wing before the crash. “I was just telling my family that there was a problem with the plane when I heard a loud explosion,” he said.

Another witness, identified only by his last name Cho, said he “saw the plane go down and I thought it was about to land when I noticed a flash of light,” Cho said. “Then there was a loud bang followed by smoke and I heard a series of explosions.”

Another witness, Kim Yong-cheol, 70, said the plane failed to land on the first attempt, so he got up to try a second time shortly before the crash, saying he heard a “scraping” sound. metallic” twice about 5 minutes before the crash. Authorities believe that the failure of the landing gear, probably due to an impact with a flock of birds, may have caused the accident.

South Korean low-cost Jeju Air apologizes