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Fiery South Korean plane crash widely blamed for a faulty landing gear has sparked a flurry of speculation, including whether something more came into play to lead to the disaster.
“There are a million backups on this plane. It’s extremely safe, and that’s what a lot of people are saying. I can’t understand why this plane landed on that runway at that speed with no flaps, no gear. Maybe there was something else involved.” , aviation consultant Mike Boyd told Fox News Sunday.
“A bird hitting the engine could kill the engine, but there are so many redundant systems there that it just doesn’t make sense. We’re not in the dark, but we know the runway is 9,200 feet. It’s a very long runway It [the plane] he came hot and high, hot and fast. We don’t know why that was a real problem.”
Eyewitnesses of the accident that killed 179 people said they saw flames in the plane’s engine and heard explosions, reports said. One described seeing a “flash of light” followed by smoke. Another said the plane was unable to land on the first attempt and had to circle back to try again before the crash.
Fire authorities search for the missing and extricate the dead from the crash site near Muan International Airport in Jeollanam-do, South Korea, on December 29, 2024, where a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed during landing. (Chris Jung/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Yonhap news agency said authorities are investigating a possible landing gear failure that could have resulted from a collision with the bird that may have caused the crash.
“That plane is probably more damaged than we think, and it might not just be a bird strike,” Boyd added. “Maybe there were other things that happened to that plane. We don’t know, but it’s very strange that that plane landed so hot on the runway where it was literally still pretty strong when they hit that wall.”
A Jeju Air plane skidded off the runway and crashed into a concrete fence at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, about 290 miles south of Seoul, on Sunday, leaving only two survivors out of 181 on board.
The video of the incident shows a 15-year-old boy Boeing 737-800 jet sliding down the runway on his belly after his landing gear failed to open. The crash sent black smoke skyward.
“The gear wasn’t out. The flaps weren’t out, which would mean there was some major hydraulic failure,” Boyd noted.
Jeju Air Co. closed cash desk. at Muan International Airport in Muan District, South Korea on Sunday, December 29, 2024. (SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Even if there’s a hydraulic failure, there’s a mechanical way to drop the landing gear. That hasn’t been done. I think we’re going to be in the dark here until we find the cockpit voice recorder and the black box for this, because it looks like there was a collision with a bird on they moved the plane to the other end of the runway, so there was control, but landing at this speed, or landing at that speed, it seems that the plane suffered some kind of major hydraulic failure.”
In a statement after the incident, Boeing said the company was in contact with Jeju Air about the flight and was “ready to support them”.
“We express our deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” the statement said.
The incident is being labeled as the worst aviation-related disaster in the country’s history.
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Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Chris Pandolfo and Landon Mion contributed to this report.
