Bird strikes prime suspect as South Korea hunts for answers – The Irish Times

No one knows for sure what caused it Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashes, killing all but two of the 181 passengers and crew.

As darkness fell on Muan International Airport South Korea and officials fielded questions from distraught relatives of the dead, the most likely explanation was that the plane had been struck by one or more birds, setting off a sequence of events that prevented the pilot from deploying the landing gear.

Aviation officials focused on bird strikes — and, to a lesser extent, weather — as the most likely causes, even though some experts said bird strikes, which are relatively common, would not have been the cause. sufficient to cause catastrophic failure of the landing gear. .

The control tower at Muan was reported to have issued a bird strike warning shortly before the pilot made the mayday call. “All the staff said they had never seen so many birds before. They suddenly flew out of the airport,” an anonymous airport official told South Korean news site OhmyNews.

More will be known once officials inspect flight data retrieved from the Boeing 737-800 wreckage, but aviation experts said a bird strike by itself likely would not have had the impact to disable the landing gear.

“A bird strike is not unusual, problems with an undercarriage are not unusual,” said Geoffrey Thomas, publisher of Airline News. “Bird strikes happen much more often, but they usually don’t cause the loss of an aircraft by themselves.”

Other experts echoed Thomas’ skepticism. “I’ve never seen a bird strike prevent the landing gear from extending,” said Geoffrey Dell, an Australian airline safety expert. Trevor Jensen, an Australian aviation consultant, said fire and emergency services would normally be prepared for a belly landing, “so this appears to be unplanned”.

Marco Chan, senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University in England, said: “Bird strikes pose a significant risk to aircraft, and the danger depends on factors such as the size of the bird, the speed of the aircraft, the location of the strike and the design of the engine.”

Birds weighing up to 1 kg “rarely cause catastrophic failure, but can damage engine blades or other critical parts,” Chan said, adding that the Boeing 737-800, equipped with CFM56-7B26 engines manufactured by CFM International, was designed to deal with a lot of bird strikes. scenarios.

Birds weighing more than 3kg, such as geese or swans, are at greatest risk, especially if ingested in an engine, he said. “Even smaller birds can cause significant problems at high speeds, especially if they hit multiple systems. While engines and airframes undergo extensive testing to manage these risks, rare and extreme scenarios remain a challenge in aviation safety.”

Dell said that if a flock of birds had been sucked into the engines, it would not have stopped the engines immediately, giving the pilots time to react.

Footage of Sunday’s crash shows the plane traveling at speed when it made contact with the tarmac. He didn’t seem to be slowing down as he made his way along the track and through a buffer zone directly in front of the perimeter wall.

In a typical belly landing, Thomas said, “You’re going to land on your engines and have a bumpy ride. You go in with minimal fuel, have fire tenders present, covering the runway with foam and land at the far end of the runway and it usually ends up being an OK situation.”

Bird strikes usually occur during landing and takeoff and are one of the most common threats to aircraft. A recent study by the US Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Agriculture found that 296,613 “wildlife strikes” were reported worldwide between 1990 and 2023, 98.3% of them in the US and mostly caused by birds.

The study found that the number of incidents increased almost every year. Over the 33-year period, 83 bird strikes resulted in the destruction of an aircraft, the report said. About 70% of incidents occurred at or below 500 meters above ground level, while those that occurred above 500 meters were more likely to cause damage.

The location of Muan International Airport, where Sunday’s crash occurred, could prove significant. It is located near three major bird sanctuaries that serve as wintering grounds for migratory birds. A survey this month by South Korea’s National Institute of Ecology recorded nearly 19,000 migratory birds in these sanctuaries.

The airport had the highest rate of bird strikes among South Korea’s 14 regional airports, with 10 incidents reported between 2019 and August this year, according to data provided to parliament by the Korea Airports Corporation.

A 2020 environmental impact assessment for the airport’s planned runway extension specifically warned of the risks, noting that “the area outside the airport has extensive agricultural land and tidal flats” and that the nearby area was “particularly rich in sources of bird feeders and rest areas’.

Ministry of Transport regulations require single-runway airports to maintain four dedicated bird control staff, or two employees for airports with fewer than 5,000 flights annually, such as Muan.

Nationally, bird strike incidents have increased, from 108 in 2019 to 152 last year. Some suggest the increase could be linked to climate change, migratory birds becoming permanent residents and changes occurring in the timing and species of birds appearing at airports.

Airports are using various countermeasures, including sound deterrents and monitoring systems, and some are exploring the use of AI technology and radar to track bird movements.