EPAMore than 170 people have died after a plane crashed as it was landing in South Korea on Sunday morning.
The Jeju Air helicopter slammed into a roof at Muan International Airport in the south-west of the nation before coming off the runway.
The aircraft, which was returning from Bangkok, in Thailand, was carrying 181 individuals- 179 of whom have died, while two staff members were rescued from the aircraft.
Officials are looking into the cause of the collision, which fire officials believe was caused by a bird reach and bad weather. But, experts have cautioned that a number of factors may have contributed to the crash.
Was animal attack a component in the collision?
Getty ImagesThe journey, 7C2216, was a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, Korea’s most common budget airport.
The plane arrived in Muan at about 09: 00 local time ( 00: 00 GMT ).
A South Korean travel official claimed the aircraft had been trying to land but was forced to stop after air traffic control issued a bird hit warning, an alert about the possibility of a collision with animals.
The captain called in a Mayday about two minutes later, and the air traffic control approved the plane’s approach from the same way, according to the standard.
One picture appears to show the aircraft squatting down without using any of its tires or other landing gear. It skidded down the runway and slammed into a roof before igniting in lights.
A witness claimed to have heard a “loud bang” followed by a” series of explosions” before reporting to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The plane is bright with smoke billowing into the horizon, according to footage from the landscape. Since then, fire personnel have completely destroyed the flames.
One could recognize the condition of the rest of the aircraft, according to Lee Jeong-hyun, the head of the Muan fireplace department, in a televised briefing.
He claimed that the accident may have been caused by a bird strike and bad weather, but that the actual cause is still a mystery. The plane’s aircraft and voice recorders have been recovered, despite a report from the Yonhap news agency that the past was damaged.
One customer on the journey messaged a sibling, saying that a parrot “was stuck in the aircraft” and that the plane was not property, local media reported.
Officers, however, have not confirmed whether the aircraft did really interact with any animals.
The mind of Jeju Air’s control said that the accident was not expected to “any servicing issues”, Yonhap reported.
The brain pilot on the trip, according to the North Korean transportation office, has been in the position since 2019 and has more than 6,800 hours of flight experience.
Geoffrey Thomas, an aircraft expert and director of Airline News, told the BBC that both the airplane and the aircraft have “excellent health records” and that South Korea and its carriers are regarded as “industry best exercise.”
He added:” A lot of things about this tragedy don’t make sense”.
EPAWhat is a bird strike?
A bird strike is a collision between a plane in flight and a bird. They are very common – in the UK, there were more than 1,400 bird strikes reported in 2022, only about 100 of which affected the plane, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.
The best known bird strike occurred in 2009, when an Airbus plane made an emergency landing on New York’s Hudson River after colliding with a flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew survived.
Professor Doug Drury, who teaches aviation at CQUniversity Australia, wrote in an article for The Conversation this summer that Boeing planes have turbofan engines, which can be severely damaged in a bird strike.
He claimed that pilots are especially vigilant in the early morning or at sunset, when birds are at their most active.
However, some aviation experts are skeptical about the possibility of the Muan Airport crash being caused by a bird strike.
” Typically they]bird strike ] don’t cause the loss of an airplane by themselves”, Mr Thomas told Reuters.
Geoffrey Dell, an expert on Australian airline safety, added to the statement:” I’ve never seen a bird strike prevent the landing gear from being extended.”
Who was on board?
175 passengers and six members of the crew were on the plane. According to authorities, two of the passengers were from Thailand, and the other two are thought to be from South Korea. Many are alleged to have been spending Christmas in Thailand.
The most fatal plane crashes in South Korean history are reported to have occurred in 179, making it the deadliest in the country’s history.
All of the crew members and four passengers perished.
Authorities have so far located at least 88 corpses.
Five of the victims were minors under the age of 10. The youngest passenger was a three-year-old boy and the oldest was 78, authorities said, citing the passenger manifest.
A man and a woman were among the flight’s two survivors, according to South Korea’s National Fire Agency. After the crash, they were discovered in the tail side of the aircraft and taken to a hospital, it said.
More than 1, 500 emergency personnel have been deployed as part of recovery efforts, including 490 fire employees and 455 police officers. They have been looking for both parts of the plane and those who were onboard in the area around the runway.
EPAWhat’s been the response?
Acting President Choi Sang-mok has established a special disaster zone in Muan, allowing local governments and victims to receive central government funding.
All flights to and from Muan International Airport have been canceled.
Families of the crash victims have been escorting their loved ones to the airport in the hope of learning what happened. Officials read the names of the victims out loud on Reuters video footage.
Getty ImagesMore than a dozen tents have been set up in the airport for bereaved families to grieve privately, thanks to Red Cross and airport authorities.
Sounds of crying echoed through the terminal. Some people find the time it takes to identify the bodies frustrating.
Jeju Air has apologised to families. The airline has no history of accidents, according to its CEO, who spoke at a press conference. The crash on Sunday is thought to be the only fatal accident to occur since the airline’s launch in 2005.
Boeing, the maker of airplanes, has expressed condolences to the victims.
Choi, South Korea’s acting president, said:” I express my deepest condolences to the many victims in the incident. I’ll do everything in my power to speed up recovery for the injured.
The government has set aside a seven-day period of national mourning for the country, during which time the flags will be raised at government buildings.