Taipei, Taiwan – The deadly crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 in South Korea has highlighted the dangers fowl strikes pose to business airliners.
Pilots advised air site visitors management that their plane collided with a flock of birds shortly earlier than declaring mayday and making an emergency touchdown at Muan Worldwide Airport, in line with South Korea’s Transport Ministry.
Footage of the crash on Sunday confirmed the twin-engine Boeing 787-800 making a belly-flop touchdown on the runway with out its touchdown gear deployed.
The plane then skidded throughout the tarmac earlier than hitting a concrete wall and exploding into flames, killing 179 out of 181 folks on board.
Geoffrey Thomas, the Australia-based editor-in-chief of Airline Rankings, mentioned {that a} fowl strike was possible solely a partial reason behind the lethal crash.
Proof factors to the plane experiencing {an electrical} failure as a result of it stopped transmitting location knowledge – often called “ADS-B knowledge” – to air site visitors management shortly after declaring mayday, Thomas mentioned.
“It seems as if these pilots have been coping with cascading failures, the precise nature of which we don’t know. What we do know is the ADS-B knowledge stopped, they didn’t deploy their flaps for touchdown, and so they didn’t deploy the undercarriage,” Thomas advised Al Jazeera.
“Now, why these issues occur, we don’t know, nevertheless it all occurred after air site visitors management warned of a flock of birds,” Thomas added.
It is going to possible be months earlier than investigators decide the precise reason behind the crash, which is the deadliest air catastrophe to ever happen on South Korean soil.
South Korean authorities are probing the crash alongside america Nationwide Transportation Security Board in accordance with international aviation laws as a result of the Boeing plane concerned was made within the US.
Chook strikes are a comparatively widespread hazard for business aviation however not often end in severe accidents.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported 19,400 wildlife strikes – together with birds – at US airports in 2023 alone. US airways reported one other 236 strikes throughout 55 nations in the identical yr, in line with FAA knowledge.
Within the overwhelming majority of circumstances, essentially the most severe final result is minor injury to the plane, with such incidents costing the business some $1.5bn a yr, in line with Thomas.
Thomas mentioned fowl strikes have turn into extra widespread as a result of development of air journey, with greater than 120,000 business flights every day around the globe, and the event of quieter planes.
Most frequently, although, plane that strike birds are fully unaffected, in line with regulatory knowledge.
Of practically 1,400 fowl strikes within the UK in 2022, fewer than 100 induced injury to the plane or interrupted the flight, in line with the Civil Aviation Authority.
Whereas fowl strikes not often trigger issues, they’ve been implicated in a number of severe accidents over time.
Investigators probing the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airways Flight 302 discovered that an object – more than likely a fowl – activated a flawed flight management system that induced the nostril of the airplane to pitch downward.
In 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 famously landed in New York’s Hudson River after colliding with a flock of birds shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. The Airbus A320-214 was capable of make an emergency water touchdown with no deaths.
In 1995, 24 Canadian and American airmen died after their plane crashed at an air power base in Alaska following a collision with geese.
Doug Drury, an aviation professional at Australia’s CQUniversity, mentioned {that a} fowl strike alone mustn’t have led to a deadly crash.
Pilots have been warned by air site visitors management that birds have been within the space, Drury mentioned, whereas a Boeing 737 airplane ought to be capable of make an emergency touchdown even after shedding energy in an engine.
“There are extra questions than solutions, sadly,” Drury advised Al Jazeera.
He questioned why the pilots did not gradual the plane throughout touchdown, why they reportedly landed in the wrong way of the runway and why they landed past the conventional “touchdown zone” place.
“Pilots are educated to gradual the plane down to simply above the stall velocity to minimise floor run distance. Why wasn’t the runway foamed with flame-retardant materials?” Drury mentioned.
Muan Worldwide Airport must also have had security precautions in place to scare flocks of birds, corresponding to loudspeakers that mimic the sounds of shotguns, he mentioned, that are generally used at airports around the globe.
South Korea Chosun Every day newspaper reported that environmental impression assessments on the airport had advisable the deployment of sound cannons, lasers and warning lights, however the rollout of such measures had been delayed as a result of runway extension work.
South Korea on Monday started seven days of nationwide mourning, with flags flying at half-mast and Performing President Choi Sang-mok travelling to the crash website to pay his respects.
Officers mentioned that they had tentatively recognized the stays of 141 of the victims up to now.
As investigators labored to find out the reason for the catastrophe, authorities mentioned they have been contemplating finishing up a particular inspection of all Boeing 737-800s in operation within the nation.
Choi, who assumed his duties simply three days in the past after the impeachments of the president and prime minister, mentioned he had additionally directed authorities to hold out a sweeping inspection of the nation’s complete aviation sector.
“As quickly because the accident restoration is carried out, the transport ministry is requested to conduct an emergency security inspection of your entire plane operation system to stop recurrence of plane accidents,” Choi mentioned.
