Heartbreaking Week For Aviation Capped Off By 170+ Lives Lost In South Korea Boeing 737 Disaster

by Gary Leff

This was a horrible week for aviation. In a devastating aviation disaster, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800, registration HL8088, operating flight 7C-2216 from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in South Korea, crashed on Sunday morning, resulting in the loss of more than 170 lives. The incident marks the deadliest air disaster involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades.

Meanwhile a KLM Boeing 737-800 veered off the runway on landing in Oslo, and what might otherwise not have been considered a minor issue if not for being overshadowed by Jeju Air, an Air Canada Express Dash-8 caught fire on touchdown and skidded off the runway.

And all of this after Russian missiles brought down an Azerbaijan Airlines flight on Christmas Day.

The Jeju Air disaster, though, is the biggest news of the morning.

At approximately 9:03 a.m. local time on Saunday, the aircraft attempted to land on runway 19 at Muan International Airport. The landing went catastrophically wrong as the plane touched down with all landing gear retracted. This led to an overrun of the runway, with the fuselage and engines sliding uncontrollably before impacting a concrete fence about 1,000 feet beyond the runway’s end. The impact ignited a massive fireball, engulfing the aircraft in flames.

Only two individuals survived the disaster. Both are cabin crew members who were rescued from the tail section of the aircraft, sustaining serious injuries but currently in stable condition at local hospitals. Tragically, 175 passengers and six crew members were on board, with preliminary reports confirming most as fatalities. At last update three individuals remained unaccounted for.

Early investigations suggest that a bird strike may have played a pivotal role in the accident. At 8:57 a.m. local time, Muan Airport issued a bird strike warning, prompting the flight crew to declare a Mayday at 08:58 as they initially approached runway 01.

A ground observer reported hearing multiple sounds indicative of birds being ingested into the engines, accompanied by flames emanating from the right engine. This likely led to a malfunction of the landing gear, forcing the pilots to abort the initial landing attempt. It ultimately impacted on runway 19.

The aircraft attempted a second landing under adverse weather conditions, which ultimately failed. Video footage from the scene revealed that the landing gear did not deploy, as neither the front nor rear gear was visible during the crash landing. Over 1,500 emergency personnel, including firefighters, police, military personnel, and coast guards, were deployed to the crash site.

One avenue for investigation will be the possibly unrelated diversion the same aircraft made about a day before while operating from Jeju, South Korea to Beijing, China. It landed in Seoul, and then re-entered service just five hours later. The maintenance done on the aircraft will be scrutinized. Cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been recovered.

Meanwhile, this weekend a Brightline train collided with a fire truck in Delray Beach, Florida injuring 15.

I’m more than a little bit overwhelmed this morning, to be honest.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. We’re here with you, Gary. And we’re feeling for the families and survivors. I got no jokes in this one.

    Safety rules are written in blood. The industry, crews, and passengers deserve thorough investigations to all these incidents, so that we identify the issues and improve for the future.

    I was surprised by the bird strike theory for Jeju as that was also the initial explanation for the Azerbaijan plane, until it was clear the Russians (accidentally?) shot at it. Yet, I would not be surprised if Jeju is pilot error, either failure to ensure landing gear was down, or a culture of not questioning senior officers, even if they are objectively wrong, which has been an issue in the past, specifically with Korean airlines, including the Asiana crash at SFO. Otherwise, why not burn fuel and call an emergency ahead of attempting a belly landing. Yikes!

  3. not only is the sheer number and severity of accidents overwhelming but having a play by play of disasters as they unfolded replayed just minutes after the disaster occurred too much. The process of shock and mourning is replaced by media and “aviation experts” around the world diagnosing what went wrong while bodies are still being pulled from the disaster.

    Life is fragile and the complex lives we live – moving freely around the world – add to that complexity. When all goes well all the time, it is an enormous privilege. But nothing goes well all the time.

    May family members of all those involved be comforted and the divine, however the deceased believe in it – if they do at all, show mercy.

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