Another passenger plane from the South Korean airline Jeju Air – of the same model as the one that crashed on Sunday morning – is said to have had problems with its landing gear during a flight on Monday.
South Korea’s Vice President President Choi Sang-Mok has also ordered a review of the country’s aviation security, reports BBC. On Monday, he ordered a safety inspection of all Boeing planes of the B737-800 model currently operating in the country.
There are 101 aircraft from six different companies, according to Joo Jong-Wan, head of the aviation division at the Ministry of Transport.
Just over a day after the fatal plane crash at Muan International Airport, when 179 people lost their lives, South Korea is in national mourning.
Martin Olsson, former CEO of a company that works with security at airports in particular, does not want to preempt the investigation but says in Morgonstudion that the 3 kilometer long runway should have been more than sufficient for the type of aircraft in question.
– But of course, if you don’t have any wheels to put down on the runway, you can activate the brakes and so on, then you have more or less lost control.
“Should not be on the runway”
Many also wonder what the stone and concrete wall the plane crashed into had to do with it at all.
– There shouldn’t be a wall on the runway. There is a solid and rigorous international set of regulations regarding how an airport and runway should be designed to avoid this type of obstacle, says Olsson.
The international standard is abbreviated Resa – Runway and and safety area – and means that there must be a safety zone at the beginning and end of the runway.
– When you look a little closer at the video footage, you can clearly see that the aircraft leaves the runway, goes out onto the grass area, which is supposed to be this protective barrier, and then into a wall.
He does not want to go so far as to point out the specific aircraft model.
– It is clear that something has happened during the approach. So I dare not speculate on that.
Reports have come in of birds in the air during Sunday’s plane crash. Bird strikes and whether or not the plane’s control system was disabled are some of the things that are now being investigated.