Transport Ministry officials have said their early assessment of communications records show the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land. The flight had reportedly attempted one landing before being forced to “go around” when the landing gear failed to lower normally.
8.57am local time: Muan International Airport’s control tower issued a warning over possible bird strikes.
8.58am: The pilot sent a “Mayday” distress signal.
9am: The plane attempted to land on the runway but failed to deploy its landing gear.
9.03am: The aircraft crash-landed on its fuselage, collided with the airport fence, and erupted into flames.
8:58 they declare mayday because of no landing gear and two minutes later they’re attempting the riskiest landing of their lives? I bet „no landing gear” checklist is a bit longer than two minutes.
8:58 they declare mayday because of no landing gear and two minutes later they’re attempting the riskiest landing of their lives? I bet „no landing gear” checklist is a bit longer than two minutes.
You’re right, if the mayday were due to the landing gear not being down they wouldn’t have attempted to land so quickly. There are many things they would try first, and the final failsafe simply drops the landing gear with gravity. If the gear were up, it’s because the crew left the gear up.
The mayday wasn’t about the landing gear.
The mayday was due to a bird strike. They initiated a go-around after the bird strike, and they may have also lost the second engine during the go-around. Perhaps a second bird strike. This would explain the lack of flaps and landing gear: the crew may have been trying to minimize drag to reach the runway without power. Unfortunately they ran out of runway after floating too long due to ground effect and traveling far too quickly.
The incident would likely have been survivable at many airports. That berm with the localizer antena on it is a terrible safety hazard that shouldn’t exist at a major airport.
Got it, I assumed the mentioned bird strike related specifically to the nosecone area and the front landing gear, but engine fidelity remained. Again, an assumption based on my first read
By the time that they realized the landing gear failed, they were likely only a 300-800 meters off the ground. While its certainly not impossible to do a go-around on one engine in a 737, the pilots likely feared they wouldn’t have enough thrust, and they would be better off attempting to land without landing gear which the aircraft is certainly capable of doing. It’s also possible both engines were down, in which case they wouldn’t have had much of a choice.
Quoting from: https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/east-asia/south-korea-plane-crash-jeju-air-cause-what-happened-b2671091.html
I’m not a pilot or an expert by any means but I think I would have landed in water if possible. Maybe it wasn’t possible… Idk
As a general rule - any airport is better than the best water.
Landing in the water is far worse.
8:58 they declare mayday because of no landing gear and two minutes later they’re attempting the riskiest landing of their lives? I bet „no landing gear” checklist is a bit longer than two minutes.
You’re right, if the mayday were due to the landing gear not being down they wouldn’t have attempted to land so quickly. There are many things they would try first, and the final failsafe simply drops the landing gear with gravity. If the gear were up, it’s because the crew left the gear up.
The mayday wasn’t about the landing gear.
The mayday was due to a bird strike. They initiated a go-around after the bird strike, and they may have also lost the second engine during the go-around. Perhaps a second bird strike. This would explain the lack of flaps and landing gear: the crew may have been trying to minimize drag to reach the runway without power. Unfortunately they ran out of runway after floating too long due to ground effect and traveling far too quickly.
The incident would likely have been survivable at many airports. That berm with the localizer antena on it is a terrible safety hazard that shouldn’t exist at a major airport.
Yeah unless they were out of fuel, isn’t the procedure to… Orbit and use nearly all fuel?
If they had the bird strike like they announced, it might stop their engines mid go-around, what is really bad spot to be in
Got it, I assumed the mentioned bird strike related specifically to the nosecone area and the front landing gear, but engine fidelity remained. Again, an assumption based on my first read
Given that it is only a 2-jet aircraft, I doubt a go-around would have been possible post-birdstrike.
Interesting, can you elaborate? As in they don’t have power for a go around?
By the time that they realized the landing gear failed, they were likely only a 300-800 meters off the ground. While its certainly not impossible to do a go-around on one engine in a 737, the pilots likely feared they wouldn’t have enough thrust, and they would be better off attempting to land without landing gear which the aircraft is certainly capable of doing. It’s also possible both engines were down, in which case they wouldn’t have had much of a choice.
You can go around on a single engine
Based on the explosion I highly doubt they were low on fuel