South Korean authorities said on Monday they would conduct safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800 planes operated by the country’s airlines as they struggle to determine the cause of a plane crash that killed 179 people the previous day.
Sunday’s crash was the worst aviation disaster in decades and prompted an outpouring of public sympathy. Many people believe that the recent successive impeachment of two of the country’s top officials, President Yun Seok-Yeong and Prime Minister Han Do-soo, and the political turmoil caused by Yun, will help the South Korean government deal with the leadership vacuum. They are concerned about how effectively they will respond to disasters. Martial law was briefly imposed earlier this month.
New acting President Choi Sang-mok presided over a task force meeting regarding the accident on Monday and instructed authorities to conduct an urgent review of the country’s aircraft operation system.
Choi, who is also vice prime minister and finance minister, said, “The essence of a responsible response would be to completely revamp the aviation safety system to prevent similar incidents from happening again, and build a safer Republic of Korea.” said.
A Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean low-cost airline Jeju Air aborted its first landing for reasons that were not immediately clear. Later, during the second landing attempt, a bird strike warning was received from the ground control center before the pilot issued a distress call. The plane landed without its nose gear deployed, went over the runway, crashed into a concrete fence, and exploded in a fireball.
Alan Price, a former Delta Air Lines chief pilot and current consultant, said the Boeing 737-800 is a “proven aircraft,” and belongs to a different class of aircraft than the Boeing 737 Max, which was involved in a fatal crash in 2018. “A certain plane,” he said. And in 2019.
However, South Korea’s Ministry of Transport announced on Monday that it will carry out safety inspections of all 101 Boeing 737-800 passenger planes operated by the country’s airlines, and plans a wide-ranging review of the safety standards of Jeju Air, which operates 39 of them. It was announced that Choo Jeong-wan, a senior ministry official, said representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing Co. were scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Monday to participate in the investigation.
Ministry officials also questioned whether Muan Airport’s localizer, a concrete fence that houses a series of antennas designed to safely guide aircraft during landing, should have been made of lightweight material that is more susceptible to breakage in a crash. He said he would investigate.
Joo said the ministry has determined that similar concrete structures exist at other airports in the country, including Jeju Island and the southern cities of Yeosu and Pohang, as well as airports in the United States, Spain and South Africa.
Former airline pilot John Cox said video of the crash shows the pilots did not deploy flaps or slats to slow the plane, suggesting a possible hydraulic failure. He said the failure to manually lower the landing gear suggested there was no time available. CEO of Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Nevertheless, the jetliner was under control and flying in a straight line, and without the barrier so close to the runway, any damage or injuries likely would have been minimal, Cox said. Ta.
Other observers said landing gear failure was likely the immediate cause of the crash, although video showed the plane experiencing suspected engine trouble. They said there was unlikely to be a connection between the landing gear problem and the suspected engine problem.
Early Monday, another Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air returned to Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport after the pilot detected a problem with its landing gear shortly after takeoff. Jeju Airline executive Song Kyung-hoon said the problem was resolved through communication with the equipment center on the ground, but the pilot decided to return to Gimpo as a precaution.
Zhu said authorities are investigating whether there may have been a communication problem between air traffic controllers and the pilot. “Our current understanding is that communications may have been disabled or interrupted to some extent at some point during the go-around process prior to landing and impact,” he said. Ta.
Ministry officials said Monday that the plane’s flight data and cockpit audio recorder had been transferred to a research center at Gimpo Airport ahead of analysis. Ministry officials earlier said the investigation into the crash would take several months to complete.
The Muan crash was South Korea’s worst air disaster since 1997, when a Korean Air flight crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.
The crash shocked and humiliated many South Koreans, and the government announced a seven-day period of national mourning until January 4th. Some question whether this crash has safety or regulatory issues at play, like the 2022 Halloween Seoul crash that killed 160 people. There were too. The 2014 ferry sinking killed 304 people.
The Department of Transportation said authorities have identified 146 bodies and are collecting DNA and fingerprint samples from the remaining 33 bodies.
Jeju Air Flight 2216 went off the runway and burst into flames while landing at South Korea’s Muan International Airport.
Park Han-shin, a representative for the family, said the body was badly damaged and authorities were told it would take some time to return it to the family.
“We demand that the government mobilize more personnel to return our brothers and families as soon as possible and unharmed,” he said, fighting back tears.
The crash was yet another major news for South Koreans, who were already reeling from the political crisis caused by Yun’s martial law. The martial law sent hundreds of troops into the streets of Seoul, reviving traumatic memories of the previous military regime of the 1970s and 1980s.
The political turmoil led to the opposition-dominated National Assembly impeaching Yoon and Han. The Minister of Security resigned and the police chief was arrested over his role in enforcing martial law.
The absence of a chief executive in charge of disaster management has raised concerns.
“We are very concerned about whether the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters will really be able to deal with disasters,” JoongAng Ilbo said in an editorial on Monday.
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