Civil aviation experts on Sunday questioned the extent of damage a potential bird strike would make in bringing down an entire aircraft.
Several reports suggested that a bird strike could have led the aircraft’s landing gear to malfunction and crash, killing 179 passengers at South Korea’s Muan International Airport.
Videos show the aircraft skidding on the runway without deploying the landing gear. The plane lost control, crashed into a concrete wall, and burst into flames.
“At this point there are a lot more questions than we have answers. Why was the plane going so fast? Why were the flaps not open? Why was the landing gear not down?,” Gregory Alegi, an aviation expert and former teacher at Italy’s air force academy, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
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Christian Beckert, a flight safety expert and Lufthansa pilot, claimed that a bird strike while in the air is unlikely to have damaged the landing gear. If it had happened when it was down, it would have been hard to raise again, he said.
“It’s really, really very rare and very unusual not to lower the gear because there are independent systems where we can lower the gear with an alternate system,” Beckert added.
Top updates on South Korea plane crash
-The two survivors of the tragic Jeju Air plane crash are conscious after being taken to safety by emergency workers. Officials told AFP that they were not in a life-threatening condition.
-Among the victims are 85 women, 84 men and 10 others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable. Only 65 bodies have been identified by the fire department so far. Officials also said that there was “little chance of survival” for passengers who ejected from the aircraft before the tragedy.
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-South Korea’s deputy transport minister Joo Jong-wan said that the runway’s 2,800-metre length did not contribute to the accident. He also stressed that the walls at the airport were built to “industry standards”.
-An official from the department said the pilot attempted to land in the opposite direction after the bird strike warning and mayday declaration. Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University and a former pilot, said the change of plans added to the pilot’s workload. “It’s a lot of guessing games at this stage”.
-Jeju Air refused to comment on the causes of the accident. Apologising and accepting “full responsibility” for the accident, the company said it hadn’t identified any mechanical problems with the aircraft following regular checkups and offered to wait for the results of government investigations.
-Due to the tragedy, the South Korean government declared a period of national mourning until January 4, 2025.
