Boeing crash in South Korea: Investigators probe potential causes of disaster

Various theories are emerging regarding the cause of the deadly airliner crash in Muan, South Korea, on December 29, with initial investigations pointing to airframe failure after a "bird strike" as the leading culprit. 

The crash, involving a Jeju Air passenger jet carrying 181 people, occurred near Muan International Airport, located 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul, at around 9:03 a.m.

The plane had declared mayday just minutes before the crash, at 8:58 a.m., one minute after the control tower issued a bird strike warning. The aircraft had been attempting to land in the opposite direction of the runway and crashed into a fence wall without its landing gear extended. Aviation experts agree that the malfunctioning landing gear was a direct cause of the crash, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

"If you look at the video, the landing gear didn't extend, and the plane crashed with very little loss of speed," said Professor Choi Kee-young from Inha University. "An airplane has multiple brakes, and if the landing gear doesn't work, the reverse-propelled engines lift the wing flaps, which act as airbrakes. But they didn't seem to have worked in this case."

The bird strike is believed to have caused damage to the aircraft’s engine and hydraulic systems. Experts suggest the bird collision may have affected both the engine and the hydraulic system that operates the landing gear. "If birds fly into the engine, it can damage the engine and affect the hydraulic system connected to it," said Kim Kyu-wang, director of Hanseo University Flight Education Center. "The hydraulic system raises and lowers the landing gear during takeoff and landing, and that part may have been damaged."

However, some analysts caution that a single engine failure caused by the bird strike alone is unlikely to explain the severity of the crash. "In case of a belly landing, a plane has to slow down by creating more drag with the wings, but this was not visible in the video," noted Professor Choi. "My guess is that both engines failed," he added. "If both engines fail, the whole airplane goes down and the pilot's commands can't get through."

Experts are calling for a thorough investigation into the exact cause of the crash. "We need to analyze the cause, but it's very unusual for all three landing gears to fail to deploy," said Kim In-gyu, director of the Korea Aerospace University Flight Education Center. "It is difficult to conclude that a bird strike alone was responsible. We also need to examine whether the aircraft had any pre-existing defects."

By Vugar Khalilov