reader Posted December 29, 2024 Posted December 29, 2024 From NY Times A passenger plane carrying 181 people crash-landed on its belly on Sunday at an airport in South Korea, hitting a barrier and exploding into an orange fireball in the worst aviation disaster in the country in almost three decades. Most of the people on board the plane, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, were killed, officials said. The plane, Flight 7C2216, had taken off from Bangkok and was landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea’s southwest when it crashed around 9 a.m. local time. Officials said the plane had broken into so many pieces that only its tail was identifiable. The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members. As of Sunday evening, the official death toll had risen to 177, according to the National Fire Agency. Two crew members had been rescued from the aircraft’s tail section, and emergency workers continued searching the wreckage. Officials were investigating why the landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned, and whether birds had struck the plane or if bad weather had been a factor, Ju Jong-wan, a director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said at a news briefing. As the plane was landing, he said, the airport warned it about a potential bird strike. The plane issued a mayday alert shortly after, he said, then crash-landed. The muddy tidal flats near Muan International Airport and much of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula are favorite resting places for migrant birds. Photographs in local media showed flocks of birds flying near the airport on Sunday. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/world/asia/what-to-know-south-korea-plane-crash.html Marc in Calif and vinapu 2 Quote
reader Posted Friday at 02:09 PM Author Posted Friday at 02:09 PM From Korea Times Plane flew relentlessly before tragedy with minimal maintenance The Jeju Air flight 2216, which crashed in the catastrophic tragedy, completed its pre-departure maintenance in just 28 minutes, the official minimum time mandated for B737 aircraft by the Korean government. The tight maintenance schedule has raised concerns over whether the low-cost carrier (LCC) prioritized operational efficiency over safety, as the plane underwent an intense itinerary the day before the accident, connecting four international cities without significant downtime. The ill-fated aircraft operated flights between Muan and Kota Kinabalu, Nagasaki, Taipei and Bangkok, executing a total of eight departures within a single day, multiple sources said Monday. According to industry standards, planes require time for maintenance, cleaning and refueling between flights. However, on Nov. 27, the flight spent just 62 minutes on the ground at Muan International Airport before departing for Kota Kinabalu, suggesting that only 28 to 30 minutes were allocated for maintenance. One veteran mechanic with over a decade of experience working with B737 aircraft at LCCs said, “The 28-minute maintenance time is barely enough to check for cockpit warning lights and visually inspect the exterior for obvious damage. It’s essentially a walkthrough, not a detailed inspection.” https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2025/01/281_389392.html?utm_source=taboola floridarob 1 Quote
