A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 taking off from Osaka Kansai airport.
Fabrizio Gandolfo | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Accident investigators are attempting to work out what caused a Jeju Air flight to belly-land without its landing gear down at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board because it burst into flames within the nation’s worst air disaster in a long time.
South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, ordered an emergency inspection of the country’s Boeing 737-800s, the sort of plane used on the fatal Jeju Air Flight 7C2216.
The Boeing 737-800 is one in all the world’s mostly used airplanes, and it has a powerful safety record. It predates the Boeing 737 Max, the kind that was involved in two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed all 346 people on board those flights. The 737 Max was grounded for nearly two years, and a flight-control system, which was later tweaked, was implicated in each of those crashes.
The scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames is seen at Muan International Airport in Muan, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on December 30, 2024.
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images
There are nearly 4,400 of the older Boeing 737-800s operated around the globe, based on aviation-data firm Cirium. Which means the model makes up about 17% of the world’s in-service industrial passenger jet fleet.
The common age of the world’s 737-800 fleet is 13 years old, based on Cirium, and the last of the series of planes were delivered about five years ago.
Jeju Air took delivery of the plane which was involved on this weekend’s crash in 2017. It was previously operated by European discount carrier Ryanair, based on Flightradar24. The plane involved within the crash was about 15 years old.
Aerospace experts say it’s unlikely that investigators will discover a design problem with the long-flying aircraft.
“The thought that they’re going to discover a design flaw at this point is borderline inconceivable,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm.
A full investigation could take longer than a yr, and the bizarre incident has raised more questions than answers, reminiscent of why the landing gear wasn’t deployed. Even with a hydraulic malfunction, Boeing 737-800 pilots can drop the landing gear manually.
One theory involves a possible bird strike that disabled no less than one if not each engines.
“If that happens on the altitude they were at, they might not have had time to do emergency checklists,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. He also said if the plane hadn’t run right into a mount of dirt and hard wall at the top of the runway, the accident might have been more survivable. That area housed a localizer that helps guide aircraft.
The NTSB is leading the U.S. team of investigators that also includes Boeing and the FAA, because the aircraft was manufactured and authorized in the USA.
Under international protocols, the country by which the accident took place will lead the general investigation.
Boeing shares fell greater than 4% early Monday after local officials called for inspections on 737-800s operated by South Korean airlines, but pared earlier losses to finish the day down 2.3%.
