Why did the South Korean Jeju Air plane crash, killing 179? Experts question claims of bird strikes

As an investigation begins into the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil, experts have cast doubt on whether a suspected collision with a bird could have caused such damage.

All but two of the 181 people aboard Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 died on Sunday morning after the plane launched an unsuccessful emergency landing at South Korea’s Maun International Airport. It had flown in from the Thai capital Bangkok with dozens of Christmas holiday guests.

Among the passengers were five children under the age of 10, including a three-year-old.

Terrifying footage showed the plane skidding across the runway before colliding with a brick wall and bursting into flames. The only two survivors were two crew members who had been seated in the back of the plane.

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The incident resulted in the highest number of fatalities from an aircraft crash on South Korean soil in the country’s history. The country is otherwise known to have had a strong aviation safety record over the past two decades.

“Why didn’t firefighters put foam on the runway? Why weren’t they present when the plane landed? And why did the plane land so far down the runway? And why was there a brick wall at the end of the runway?” said Airline News editor Geoffrey Thomas.

South Korean officials said they were investigating the cause of the crash, including a possible bird strike, after it emerged air traffic controllers had warned the pilots of the risk of a collision just three minutes before the plane touched down on the runway. One minute after the warning, the pilots issued a mayday.

According to local media, a passenger on the plane sent a text message to a family member saying a bird was “stuck in the wing” and the plane could not land. “Shall I leave my last words?” so wrote the passenger.

Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civilian investigation into the crash and automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, where the plane was designed and built. Jeju Air claimed the crash was not due to “maintenance issues”.

The flight data recorder was found at 11:30 local time (02:30 GMT), about two and a half hours after the crash, and the cockpit voice recorder was found at 2:24 p.m., according to South Korea’s Ministry of Transport.

Investigators later told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, however, that the voice recorder was damaged and that it could take up to a month to decode as a result.

Thomas described the flight data recorder as “the heartbeat of the plane” that should provide clues as to how the crash unfolded. There are probably several reasons for the crash.

However, experts said it seemed unlikely that a bird strike would have been the only reason the landing gear malfunctioned.

“A bird strike is not unusual, problems with an undercarriage are not unusual. Bird strikes happen far more often, but typically they do not cause the loss of an aircraft by themselves,” said Thomas.

Australian safety expert Geoffrey Dell said: “I’ve never seen a bird strike prevent the landing gear from being extended.”

A bird strike could have affected the CFM International engines if a flock had been sucked into them, but it would not have shut them down immediately, giving the pilots some time to deal with the situation, Dell said.

The experts also questioned why the pilots did not have time to brake, as is standard, during an emergency belly landing.

Typically in a belly landing, “you’re going to land on your engines and you’re going to have a bumpy ride,” Thomas said.

“You come in with minimal fuel, you have the fire department present, cover the runway with foam, and you land at the far end of the runway, and usually it ends up being an OK situation.”

Joo Jong-wan, vice transport minister, dismissed concerns about the use of a brick wall as a safety measure, saying both ends of the track have “safety zones with green buffer areas before reaching the outer wall”.

He added that the airport was designed “according to standard aviation security guidelines, although the wall may look closer than it actually is”.

The flight captain had worked at that rank since 2019 and had logged 6,823 flight hours, the transport ministry said. The first officer had worked at that rank since 2023 and had logged approximately 1,650 flight hours.

The Boeing model involved in the crash, a 737-800, is one of the world’s most flown airliners with a generally strong safety record and was developed long before the MAX variant involved in a recent Boeing safety crisis.