Seoul: The first report of last month’s Jeju Airlines crash in South Korea confirmed effects of bird strikes in the plane’s engines, though officials have not determined the cause of the crash that killed all but two of the 181 people on board.
A preliminary accident report released by the South Korea Railway Accident Investigation Board on Monday said feathers and bird blood stains were found in both engines.
“The samples were sent to specialized organizations for DNA analysis, and a local organization identified them as belonging to Baikal Teals,” he said, referring to a migratory duck.
The report also said the plane’s two black boxes — the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder — stopped recording about four minutes before the crash. This can complicate efforts to find the cause of the accident.
The Boeing 737-800 skidded off the runaway at Muan International Airport on December 29 after the landing gear failed to deploy, recovering into a concrete structure and exploding in flames. The flight was returning from Bangkok and all the victims were South Koreans except for two Thai nationals.
Rescue crews work at the plane crash site at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea.credit: AP
Several analysts said the concrete structure, which houses an array of antennas called localizers that guide planes during landing, should have been built with lighter materials that could break more easily on impact. South Korea’s Ministry of Transport announced last week that it would remove the concrete structure at the airport.
Investigators previously said that air traffic controllers warned pilots of possible bird strikes two minutes before the plane issued a distress signal confirming a bird strike had occurred, after which the pilots attempted an emergency landing.
The initial report said the pilots also observed a group of birds during the approach to the runway at Muan Airport and that a security camera filmed the plane approaching the birds during an aborted landing as well.