The crash of a Jeju Air Boeing plane in South Korea on Sunday was the result of a deadly combination of unfavorable factors, according to the New York Times, based on conversations with experts.
Runway length: The newspaper said in a report published yesterday, Monday, that the length of the runway at Muan Airport, where the disaster occurred, is 9,200 feet (2.8 km), but when the ill-fated plane landed, only 8,200 feet (2.5 km) of it could be used due to ongoing construction work. To expand the runway.
However, officials assert that even this length is sufficient to land 737-800 aircraft. On Sunday, the plane also missed its usual landing zone and landed further than usual along the runway.
Footage of the Boeing 737-800 landing at the airport showed it sliding on the runway without deploying the landing wheels, and as it was rolling on its belly, surrounded by what looked like clouds of dust, smoke and sparks, it was unable to slow its speed before colliding with the concrete structure 820 feet from the end. The runway and exploded, killing 179 people on board and leaving only two survivors.
Failure to use speed reduction devices: Aviation experts said that the plane’s pilot appeared unable to control its engines and landing gear as it landed, depriving him of two of the three main means of slowing the plane: braking the landing gear and pushing the engines back. They added that the plane did not activate its wing flaps, which is another way to reduce speed.
Concrete structure: After landing, the plane was traveling so fast that it overshot the runway and collided directly with a concrete structure surrounded by a mound of dirt. The structure is built to install a so-called localization antenna that helps the pilot maintain the correct approach path.
Yoo Young-wan, director of aviation policy at the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, explained that such a concrete structure can be found at other airports in South Korea and abroad, and that it was built according to regulations, but some experts believe that if there was no such structure If the antenna had been installed on a more breakable bracket, the plane might have avoided the tragedy.
Precipitous landing: However, experts also pointed out that the plane’s problem began before it hit the structure.
“The big question is why was the pilot in such a hurry to land?” said Hwang Ho-won, president of the Korea Aviation Security Association.
He pointed out that when pilots plan to land on the belly of the plane, they usually try to buy time, by getting rid of excess fuel in the air and allowing time for the ground crew to prepare for the emergency, but it seems that the Jeju Air pilot decided that he did not have such time, he said, Huang said: “Were both engines lost? Was the decision to land so quickly a human error?
“An engine problem does not necessarily mean a problem with the landing gear,” said Baek Sung-yu, a professor of public safety at Open Cyber University in South Korea. “The two things are not necessarily related.” “But in this case, both appear to have occurred, forcing the plane to make the decision to land on its belly within minutes.”
Even if the plane loses one of its engines due to a bird collision, the pilot can still operate a hydraulic pump to lower the landing gear with the power of the other engine, said J.Y. Young, an aviation expert at Kyungwon University in South Korea.
Analysts said that if both engines were lost, the pilot could still lower the landing gear manually. But given the hasty manner in which the pilot attempted to land, he may not have had enough time, they said.
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