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| ▲ This photo, provided by a Yonhap reader, shows the accident site where a passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in Muan, 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul, on Dec. 29, 2024. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) plane crash-bird warning
(LEAD) Bird strike warning issued shortly before Jeju Air plane crash in Muan: ministry
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SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Yonhap) -- An airport control tower had warned of a bird strike just six minutes before a Jeju Air passenger jet carrying 181 people crashed in South Korea's southwestern county of Muan, the transport ministry said Sunday.
Officials earlier said the accident happened at around 9:07 a.m., when the Jeju Air flight veered off the runway while landing and collided with a fence wall at Muan International Airport in Muan county, South Jeolla Province, 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul.
According to a press briefing of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which oversees aviation safety, the control tower issued the warning at 8:57 a.m.
The pilot of the aircraft immediately declared mayday at 8:58 a.m. and attempted to land at 9 a.m. but crashed three minutes later at 9:03 a.m. while landing without its landing gear deployed, it said.
"While attempting to land on runway No. 1, the control tower issued a bird strike warning and the pilot declared mayday shortly after," the ministry said.
Officials said the control tower granted clearance to land in the opposite direction on the runway, after which the pilot attempted a landing until it overshot the runway and hit the wall.
According to data by the Korea Airports Corp. (KAC), Muan International Airport had reported 10 bird strike incidents from 2019 to August this year.
Per KAC, the 14 international and domestic airports it operates have seen an uptick in bird strikes in recent years, from 76 in 2020 to 109 in 2021, and then to 131 in 2022 and 152 in 2023.
Airports have used acoustic deterrents and other measures to keep birds away, KAC added.
The transport ministry dispatched members of its Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board to the Muan airport Sunday afternoon. They retrieved the flight data recorder from the plane and were in the process of securing the cockpit voice recorder.
It is expected to take months for the exact cause of the crash to be determined.
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