Accident investigators try to determine what caused a Jeju Air plane to land on its belly with its landing gear down at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board because the plane crashed into the worst air of the 12 months The country went up in flames, probably the most devastating disaster in many years.
South Korea's incumbent President Choi Sang-mok ordered an emergency inspection of the country Boeing 737-800, the form of aircraft used on the fatal Jeju Air Flight 7C2216.
The Boeing 737-800 is one of the widely used aircraft on the earth and has a powerful safety record. It is older than the Boeing 737 Max, which was involved in two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed all 346 people aboard those flights. The 737 Max was grounded for nearly two years, and a flight control system that was later optimized was involved in each crashes.
Nearly 4,400 of the older Boeing 737-800s are in service worldwide, in response to aviation data company Cirium. This means the model accounts for roughly 17% of the business passenger aircraft fleet in operation worldwide.
The average age of the worldwide 737-800 fleet is 13 years, in response to Cirium, and the last aircraft within the series were delivered about five years ago.
Jeju Air has taken delivery of the plane involved on this weekend's crash in 2017. According to Flightradar24, it was previously operated by European budget airline Ryanair. The aircraft involved within the crash was roughly 15 years old.
Aerospace experts say it’s unlikely that investigators will discover a design problem with the long-haul aircraft.
“The idea that they would find a design flaw at this point is almost unthinkable,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm.
A full investigation could take greater than a 12 months, and the weird incident has raised more questions than answers, comparable to why the landing gear wasn't prolonged. Even within the event of a hydraulic malfunction, Boeing 737-800 pilots can manually eject the landing gear.
One theory is that a possible bird strike knocked out the engines.
“If this happened at the altitude they were at, they may not have had time to prepare emergency checklists,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired aviation safety investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. He also said that if the plane had not hit a tough wall at the tip of the runway, the accident would have been easier to survive.
The NTSB leads the US investigative team, which incorporates Boeing and the FAA since the aircraft was manufactured and authorized within the United States.
According to international protocols, the country where the accident occurred will lead your complete investigation.
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