Why was there a wall at the tip of the runway

Aviation experts are questioning the role of an airport design that positioned a mound of dirt and a concrete wall past the tip of a runway, which Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 slammed into Sunday morning, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.

The plane, a Boeing 737-800, belly-landed on the runway at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea after an overnight flight, apparently with flaps and landing gear retracted. The jetliner burst into flames after hitting the dirt and wall, where a localizer, which guides planes onto the runway, had been installed.

“Definitely that made it difficult to stop the aircraft safely,” said Todd Curtis, founding father of Air Protected Media, which tracks aviation accidents and other incidents. Curtis worked at Boeing for nearly a decade as a security engineer.

It can take crash investigators months if not longer to uncover the explanation for the crash, the worst-ever air disaster in South Korea and the deadliest crash in years. They may examine every little thing from aircraft maintenance records to pilot scheduling to cockpit voice recorders.

Initial evidence suggests a bird strike could have played a key role in possible engine loss. Experts cautioned the investigation is within the very early stages.

Some aviation experts say the fatalities might have been minimized had the plane not collided with the concrete wall.

In video of the Jeju Air flight’s landing, “you see the airplane skidding along, it’s slowing down, they’re slowing down and every little thing goes pretty much up until where they hit” the wall, said John Cox, an aviation safety consultant and a Boeing 737 pilot.

Cox said he suspects the explanation for death for many of the passengers on board is “going to be blunt force trauma of hitting the wall.”

Barriers past airport runways are common and really helpful.

At Latest York’s LaGuardia Airport and others, for instance, there are engineered material arresting systems, or EMAS, installed — a crushable material that slows down a plane beyond the runway and prevents it rolling into more dangerous areas. In 2016, then-vice presidential candidate Mike Pence’s plane overran a runway at LaGuardia and was ultimately stopped by EMAS.

The barrier at the sting of the runway at Muan International Airport didn’t look like frangible, or have the power to interrupt apart, in keeping with video footage and expert evaluation, something investigators are more likely to deal with.