Korea Redesigns Airport Amid Scrutiny for Wall’s Role in Crash

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(Bloomberg) — South Korean authorities have secured airport infrastructure at the site of the country’s worst civil aviation crash as questions grow over the role played in the disaster by a concrete wall at the end of the runway.

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The structure, which had an array of antennas used to steer the plane, was placed in accordance with international standards outside of the 199-meter road safety zone, Seoul’s transportation ministry said in a statement Monday evening. The investigation will look at how the barrier affected the accident, the statement said.

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This comes after international safety experts said Sunday’s plane crash that killed 179 people was made worse by the concrete pavement at the end of the road.

The disaster involved a Boeing Co. plane. 737-800 – the predecessor to the Max – operated by Jeju Air Co. The plane burst into flames at the Muan International Airport on Sunday morning after skidding down the runway on its belly and crashing into a wall. The wings and slats did not appear to be extended when the plane landed, which would have slowed it down, and the landing gear was not used.

But one of the biggest questions, according to safety experts, is why the mound above the concrete was placed at the end of the runway. Other countries, such as the US, Canada and European nations, use similar types of horns but are designed to break easily to avoid this type of situation, experts said. It is also not uncommon for machinery to be placed on top of a mound.

“There’s no reason to put them in concrete,” said Captain John Cox, president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems LLC. “The severity of this incident would have been very different if the concrete barrier had not been there.”

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South Korean laws dictate any facilities or equipment in the airport security area must be made of breakable materials to reduce the risk to aircraft. But the rules do not apply to the antenna structure at Muan Airport as it was outside the security zone.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former chief of accident investigation at the US Federal Aviation Administration, also questioned why such a rigid structure was used to store the sea antennas and said the airport’s standards would likely be scrutinized by investigators.

Guzzetti and Cox also suspected that both engines of the Jeju Air plane may have failed before landing, given that the wing flaps and landing gear were not extended, indicating that the plane had lost power. Both of them may have been hit by birds or one of them was seriously injured and they closed the second one by mistake, both said.

Emergency Arrivals

There have been other incidents where planes have landed on their stomachs with no or very few fatalities, including the “Miracle on the Hudson” in 2009 when a US Airways plane landed in the Hudson River after the plane was hit. a flock of geese took out both engines. The pilots of a plane operated by Piedmont Airlines in 1989 were able to land safely in Greensboro, North Carolina after the main landing gear jammed. None of the incidents resulted in fatalities.

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A Garuda Indonesia plane went down in a river in 2002 after both engines caught fire during a thunderstorm, resulting in the death of one person.

Authorities in South Korea are working on two black boxes, or flight recorders, that will shed light on the last minutes before the plane crashed. The flight data recorder, which tracks flight parameters such as altitude and airspeed, is missing a critical component, authorities revealed Tuesday, potentially delaying the investigation.

Korean investigators are also getting help from a team from the US led by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“It’s early,” said Cox. “Let’s get the readings of the two records. That will tell the story of the plane.”

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