Lean – conscious
The crash of the Jeju Air Boeing plane in South Korea on Sunday was the result of a fatal combination of unfavorable factors, according to the New York Times, based on conversations with experts.
Runway length
The newspaper reported that the length of the runway at Muan Airport, where the disaster occurred, is 9,200 feet (2.8 km), but when the plane landed badly, only 8,200 feet (2.5 km) of it could be used as about continuous. construction work to widen the runway.
However, officials argue that even this distance is sufficient to land a 737-800 aircraft, and on Sunday, the plane missed the normal landing zone and landed further than usual along the runway.
Footage of a Boeing 737-800 landing at the airport showed it skidding down the runway without the landing wheels deployed, and as it rolled onto its belly, surrounded by what appeared to be clouds of dust, smoke and sparks, there was no he can slow down. its speed before it collided with the concrete structure 820 feet from the end of the runway and exploded, killing 179 people on board and leaving only two survivors.
Failure to use speed reduction devices
Aviation experts said the plane’s pilot appeared to be unable to control his engines and landing gear as he landed, missing two of the three main ways to slow the plane down: blocking the landing gear and pushing the engines back without activating their 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 head-on with a concrete structure surrounded by a mound of dirt. The structure was built to house the so-called mounted antenna, which which helps the pilot to maintain the right approach.
Yoo Young-wan, director of aviation policy at South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, explained that such a concrete structure can be found at other airports in South Korea and abroad, and was built according to regulations, but some of them. experts believe that if such a structure had not existed If the antenna had been installed on a more fragile bracket, the plane might have avoided the tragedy.
“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 The Jeju Air pilot decided he didn’t have that time, he said, Huang said: “Did both engines lose? Was the decision to land so quickly a human error?”
Even if the plane loses one of its engines due to a bird strike, the pilot can still operate a hydraulic pump to lower the landing gear with the power of the other engine, said JY Young, an aviation expert at Kyungwon University in Korea South.
Analysts said that if both engines were lost, the pilot could still lower the landing gear manually. But because of the speed with which the pilot tried to land, he may not have had enough time, they said.
Source: New York Times