No person is aware of for sure what led to Jeju Air flight 2216 to crash, killing all however two of its 181 passengers and group. As darkness fell at Muan global airport in South Korea and officers fielded questions from distraught kin of the useless, the possibly rationalization was once that the aircraft have been struck through a number of birds, triggering a chain of occasions that averted the pilot from deploying the touchdown equipment.Aviation officers keen on chook moves – and, to a lesser extent, the elements – as essentially the most possible reason, whilst some professionals stated the quite commonplace phenomenon should not have been sufficient to reason a catastrophic failure of the touchdown equipment.It’s been reported that the regulate tower at Muan issued a chook strike caution in a while ahead of the pilot made a mayday name.“Team of workers individuals all stated that they had by no means noticed such a lot of birds ahead of. They all of sudden flew in from out of doors the airport,” an nameless airport legit informed the South Korean information web page OhmyNews.Extra will probably be recognized as soon as officers have inspected flight knowledge retrieved from the particles of the Boeing 737-800, however aviation professionals stated a chook strike by myself most likely should not have carried the affect had to disable the touchdown equipment.“A chook strike isn’t bizarre, issues of an undercarriage aren’t bizarre,” stated Geoffrey Thomas, the editor of Airline Information. “Fowl moves occur way more regularly, however generally they don’t reason the lack of an plane through themselves.”Different professionals echoed Thomas’s scepticism. “I’ve by no means noticed a chook strike save you the touchdown equipment from being prolonged,” stated Geoffrey Dell, an Australian airline protection skilled. Trevor Jensen, an Australian aviation advisor, stated fireplace and emergency products and services would most often be able for a abdominal touchdown, “so this seems to be unplanned”.Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New College in England, stated: “Fowl moves are a vital possibility to plane, and the chance is determined by components just like the chook’s measurement, the plane’s velocity, the site of the strike and the engine design.”Birds weighing as much as 1kg “hardly reason catastrophic disasters however can injury engine blades or different vital portions”, Chan stated, including that the Boeing 737-800, supplied with CFM56-7B26 engines manufactured through CFM Global, was once designed to take care of many chook strike eventualities.Birds weighing greater than 3kg, equivalent to ducks or swans, posed the very best possibility, particularly if ingested into an engine, he stated. “Even smaller birds could cause important issues at prime speeds, in particular in the event that they strike a couple of techniques. Whilst engines and airframes go through intensive trying out to control those dangers, uncommon and excessive eventualities stay a problem in aviation protection.”Dell stated that if a flock of birds have been sucked into the engines, that should not have close the engines down right away, giving the pilots time to react.Pictures of Sunday’s crash displays the aircraft travelling at velocity when it made touch with the tarmac. It didn’t seem to decelerate because it careered alongside the runway and throughout a buffer zone without delay in entrance of the fringe wall.In a normal abdominal touchdown, Thomas stated, “you will land for your engines and also you’re going to have a bumpy journey. You are available in with minimal gas, you may have fireplace tenders in attendance, overlaying the runway with foam, and also you land on the furthest finish of the runway and most often it finally ends up being an OK scenario.”Fowl moves generally happen all over touchdown and takeoff and are one of the vital commonplace threats to plane. A contemporary learn about through america Federal Aviation Management and america Division of Agriculture discovered that 296,613 “flora and fauna moves” have been reported international between 1990 and 2023, 98.3% of them in america and most commonly birds.The learn about discovered that the collection of incidents had risen virtually annually. Over the 33-year duration, 83 chook moves had resulted within the destruction of an plane, the document stated. About 70% of the incidents came about at or beneath 500ft above flooring stage, whilst the ones happening above 500ft have been much more likely to reason injury.The site of Muan global airport, the place Sunday’s crash came about, may grow to be important. It sits close to 3 primary chook sanctuaries that function wintering grounds for migratory birds. A survey this month through South Korea’s Nationwide Institute of Ecology recorded just about 19,000 migratory birds in those sanctuaries.The airport has recorded the very best fee of chook moves amongst South Korea’s 14 regional airports, with 10 incidents reported between 2019 and August this yr, in step with knowledge submitted to parliament through the Korea Airports Company.A 2020 environmental affect overview for the airport’s deliberate runway growth particularly warned of the dangers, noting that “the outer airport house has broad farmland and tidal residences” and that the close by house was once “in particular wealthy in chook meals assets and relaxation spaces”.Delivery ministry rules require airports with one runway to take care of 4 devoted chook regulate group of workers, or two group of workers for airports with fewer than 5,000 flights once a year, like Muan.National, chook strike incidents were expanding, from 108 in 2019 to 152 ultimate yr. Some counsel the upward push might be related to local weather trade, with migratory birds turning into everlasting citizens and shifts happening within the timing and species of birds showing at airports.Airports make use of more than a few countermeasures together with sound deterrents and tracking techniques, and a few exploring the usage of AI and radar generation to trace chook actions.
