Why was there a wall at the end of the runway

Aviation specialists are questioning the position of an airport design that positioned a mound of filth and a concrete wall previous the top of a runway, which Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 slammed into Sunday morning, killing all however two of the 181 folks on board.

The airplane, a Boeing 737-800, belly-landed on the runway after an in a single day flight, apparently with flaps and touchdown gear retracted. The jetliner burst into flames after hitting the filth and wall, the place a localizer, which guides planes onto the runway, had been put in.

“Definitely that made it troublesome to cease the plane safely,” mentioned Todd Curtis, founding father of Air Secure Media, which tracks aviation accidents and different incidents. Curtis labored at Boeing for practically a decade as a security engineer.

It should take crash investigators months if not longer to uncover the reason for the crash, the worst-ever air catastrophe in South Korea and the deadliest crash in years. They’ll examine everything from plane upkeep data to pilot scheduling to cockpit voice recorders.

Preliminary proof suggests a chicken strike might have performed a key position in potential engine loss. Consultants cautioned the investigation is within the very early phases.

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

In video of the Jeju Air flight’s touchdown, “you see the airplane skidding alongside, it’s slowing down, they’re slowing down and the whole lot goes fairly properly up till the place they hit” the wall, mentioned John Cox, an aviation security advisor and a Boeing 737 pilot.

Cox mentioned he suspects the reason for dying for a lot of the passengers on board is “going to be blunt power trauma of hitting the wall.”

Limitations previous airport runways are widespread and beneficial.

At New York’s LaGuardia Airport and others, for instance, there are engineered materials arresting techniques, or EMAS, put in — a crushable materials that slows down a airplane past the runway and prevents it rolling into extra harmful areas. In 2016, then-vice presidential candidate Mike Pence’s airplane overran the runway at LaGuardia and was finally stopped by EMAS.

The barrier on the fringe of the runway at Muan Worldwide Airport in South Korea didn’t look like frangible, or have the flexibility to interrupt aside, in keeping with video footage and professional evaluation, one thing investigators are more likely to concentrate on.