South Korea’s Jeju Air crash: calls for removal of runway wall, as scrutiny intensifies

Scrutiny over a runway wall that Jeju Air flight 7C2216 slammed into intensified on Tuesday, with experts calling for the removal of the structure at Muan Airport and other terminals across South Korea. The doomed flight carrying 181 people on board had attempted a wheelless or so-called belly landing amid undercarriage issues suspected to be caused by a bird strike, skidding and crashing into the mount some 250 metres beyond the runway. There were only two survivors from Sunday’s tragedy – both cabin crew members found at the tail section of the ravaged plane. More details of communication from the pilots surfaced on Tuesday, with the transport ministry saying the plane had sent a distress signal to the control tower at 8.59am, two minutes after it was warned of a flock of birds nearby. “Mayday, mayday, mayday. Bird strike, bird strike. [We’re] going around,” the pilot was quoted as saying to the control tower. Four minutes later, the plane touched down without deploying its landing gear, skidded along the runway at high speed and slammed into the barrier in question, triggering an explosion. The impact of the crash was so severe that many bodies were shredded, compelling rescuers to comb through the site to retrieve remains and conduct DNA tests for identification, according to local reports. Experts argue that the presence of a solid structure containing an aircraft guidance system near the end of the runway contributed to the nation’s worst aviation disaster. Lee Gun-young, head of the flight education centre at Korea National University of Transportation, said the accident would have been “far less deadly” if “frangible” materials had been used instead of the earth-and-cement structure in which the Instrument Landing System (ILS) was embedded. “ICAO provides specific regulations regarding the frangibility of Instrument Landing System facilities, including antennae at airports,” he told This Week in Asia. Frangibility refers to the ability of an object to break, deform, or yield on impact to minimise damage to aircraft and reduce risks to occupants during collisions. Airport authorities said the dune was designed to raise the height of the guidance facilities to keep them level with the sloped runway’s end. Experts noted that filling up the sliding area beyond the runway with earth to create a level field would have cost significantly more than constructing a dune. Transport ministry officials stressed the dune’s location was not in breach of regulations as it existed outside the runway’s clear zones. Lee, however, dismissed this argument. “The issue here is not whether it meets regulations or not. All safety measures should be taken with the worst scenarios in mind,” he said. “I train future pilots, and I hope airport authorities take measures to remove these structures and replace them with frangible materials for safety in case aircraft overrun runways again.” All 82 people on board reportedly survived after Asiana flight 162 hit ILS at Hiroshima Airport in Japan in April 2015, and all 173 people on board Korean Air flight 631 also survived after the plane collided with the aircraft guidance system at Mactan Cebu Airport in the Philippines in October 2022 as their ILS systems were frangible. Kwon Bo-heon, a professor of aviation safety management at Far East University, said the rigid construction of the guidance system on a solid dune “likely worsened the accident’s severity. Video footage shows the aircraft sliding smoothly along the runway before colliding with the mound and erupting into flames”. He added that had the structure supporting the guidance system adhered to guidelines for material, the aircraft might have stopped without exploding, according to the Korea Times. International voices have echoed these concerns. David Learmount, a former Royal Air Force aviation expert, told Sky News on Monday that the crash resulted in flames because the aircraft hit a rigid structure. “That kind of structure shouldn’t be there,” he said, adding the ILS should not be embedded in something as hard as that. “I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere ever before. Not only is there no justification [for having a concrete structure like that in this area], I think it’s verging on criminal to have it there.” The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced plans to determine whether the design of guidance facilities played a significant role in the crash. “Together with experts, we will review the standards for the establishment of ILS and come up with measures to improve them, if necessary,” Joo Jong-wan, head of the ministry’s aviation policy division, told journalists on Tuesday. “Future investigations will assess what would have happened if the concrete structure had not been present.” John Cox, a safety consultant, told The Washington Post that video evidence showing the plane skidding down the runway suggested the pilots had maintained a degree of control. “They land on that runway beautifully,” Cox said. Had the barrier not been there, he added, the plane might have had enough space to come to a safe stop.

South Korea’s Jeju Air crash: calls for removal of runway wall, as scrutiny intensifies

Experts say use of ‘frangible’ materials for guidance facilities to reduce impact of crashes would have made the accident ‘far less deadly’