According to a preliminary report released on Monday (January 27), remnants of Baikal Teals, a type of migratory duck, were found in both engines of the Jeju Air plane that crashed last month. Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the deadliest domestic air disaster in South Korea.
The South Korean authorities stated in a six-page report issued a month after the crash that the Boeing 737-800 jet had DNA traces of Baikal Teals in both engines. Baikal Teals are migratory birds that flock to South Korea for the winter.
However, the report did not provide initial conclusions on why the landing gear was not deployed during landing, or why the flight data recorder stopped recording in the final 4 minutes.
On December 29, 2024, the Jeju Air flight that took off from Bangkok made an emergency belly landing at Muan Airport, overshooting the runway and crashing into a concrete embankment equipped with navigation equipment. Only two out of the 181 people on board survived.
After colliding with the embankment, a fire broke out and there was a partial explosion, burying both engines in soil and scattering the front fuselage 30 to 200 meters away from the embankment. The report also included some new photos of the accident scene.
Experts mentioned that the navigation equipment, known as the locator, is an auxiliary navigation device for aircraft when approaching the airport. The structure supporting the antenna of this system at Muan Airport, made of reinforced concrete and soil, is likely one of the reasons for the high death toll.
The investigation report stated that the next steps would involve dismantling the engines, conducting thorough inspections of components, analyzing flight and air traffic control data, and investigating the embankment, locator, and evidence of bird strikes.
These comprehensive investigative activities aim to accurately determine the cause of the accident.
The report emphasized that investigators briefed the families of the victims on many findings last Saturday (January 25), including the pilots’ awareness of a bird flock as the aircraft was landing, leading to the issuance of distress signals.
The accident report indicated that the exact timing of the pilot reporting the bird strikes, the number of birds involved, and whether there were other bird species present are still undetermined. However, the aircraft “issued emergency distress signals (Mayday x 3) during evasive maneuvers due to bird strikes.”
However, the report did not specify the reason for the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) simultaneously halting recording before the pilots informed of the emergency situation. Analyzing these two recorders for further verification will require several months.
According to the report, at the time when the flight recorder stopped recording, the aircraft was flying at a speed of 161 knots (298 kilometers per hour or 185 miles per hour) at an altitude of 498 feet (152 meters), approximately 1.1 nautical miles (2 kilometers or 1.3 miles) away from the runway.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requires accident investigators to submit a preliminary report within 30 days of the accident and aims to release the final report within 12 months.
An official stated on Monday that South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board had shared its report with the ICAO, Thailand, the United States, and France (the countries of aircraft and engine manufacturers).
(Reference: This article drew on relevant reports from Reuters)