Aviation experts are raising concerns about the airport design that placed a mound of dirt and a concrete wall beyond the end of a runway, where Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 crashed on Sunday morning, resulting in the deaths of all but two of the 181 individuals on board.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, made a belly landing on the runway at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea following an overnight flight, seemingly with retracted flaps and landing gear. The plane caught fire upon impact with the dirt and wall, where a localizer used to guide planes onto the runway was located.
Todd Curtis, the founder of Air Safe Media, a company that monitors aviation accidents and incidents, stated, “Certainly that made it difficult to stop the aircraft safely.” Curtis, who previously worked as a safety engineer at Boeing for nearly ten years, made this observation.
It will likely take crash investigators several months, if not longer, to determine the cause of the crash, which is the worst air disaster in South Korea’s history and the deadliest crash in years. The investigation will encompass various aspects, from aircraft maintenance records to pilot schedules to engine performance and cockpit voice recordings.
Preliminary evidence suggests that a bird strike may have contributed to a potential engine failure. Experts have cautioned that the investigation is still in its early stages.
Some aviation specialists believe that the number of fatalities could have been reduced if the plane had not collided with the concrete wall.
In footage of the landing of Jeju Air flight, John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and a Boeing 737 pilot, noted, “you see the airplane skidding along, it is slowing down, they’re slowing down and everything is going pretty well up until where they hit” the wall. Cox suspects that the primary cause of death for most passengers on board is likely to be the impact of hitting the wall.
Barriers beyond airport runways are standard and endorsed by international aviation authorities.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration mandates a safety area approximately 500 feet wide and extending 1,000 feet past the end of the runway to minimize damage in case an aircraft overshoots the runway. However, the FAA indicates that alternative mitigation methods are available under its Runway Safety Area Program due to many U.S. runways being constructed before the standard was established.
The agency states, “Although the original RSA improvement projects are complete, the program continues to evolve in order to address safety risk and plan for future improvements.”
For instance, at New York’s LaGuardia Airport and other locations, engineered material arresting systems (EMAS) are installed — a crushable material that decelerates a plane beyond the runway, preventing it from entering more hazardous areas. In 2016, then-vice presidential candidate Mike Pence’s plane overshot a runway at LaGuardia but was safely halted by EMAS.
The barrier at the end of the runway at Muan International Airport did not seem to be frangible, meaning it lacked the ability to break apart, as per video footage and expert analysis, an aspect likely to be a focal point for investigators.
