Seoul, South Korea:
Bird feathers and blood stains were found on both engines of the Jeju Air plane that crashed in December, according to a preliminary investigation released Monday. The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan in South Korea on December 29, when it crashed and exploded in a fireball after hitting a concrete barrier.
It was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil, killing 179 of the 181 passengers and crew.
South Korean and American investigators are still investigating the cause of the disaster, with a bird strike, a faulty landing gear and the runway barrier among the possible problems.
Both engines recovered from the crash site were inspected, and blood stains and bird feathers were “found on each,” according to the report.
“The pilots identified a group of birds while approaching runway 01, and a security camera filmed HL8088 approaching a group of birds during a turn,” the report added, referring to the Jeju Jet’s registration number.
He did not specify whether the engines had stopped working in the moments before the accident.
DNA analysis identified that the feathers and blood came from Baikal blues, migratory ducks that fly to Korea in winter from their breeding grounds in Siberia.
After the air traffic control tower cleared the plane for landing, it advised the pilots to exercise caution against possible bird attacks at 8:58 a.m., according to the report. Just a minute later, the voice and data recording systems stopped working.
Seconds after the recording systems failed, the pilots declared Mayday due to a bird strike and attempted a belly landing.
The Jeju plane exploded into flames when it collided with a concrete embankment during its landing, prompting questions about why such a barricade was in place at the end of the runway.
Last week, officials said they would replace such concrete barriers at airports across the country with “breakable structures.”
The captain had more than 6,800 flight hours, while the first officer had 1,650 hours, according to the report. Both were killed in the crash, which was survived only by two flight attendants.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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