179 people lost their lives when a Boeing 737-800 crashed in South Korea last year. Now, new evidence has been presented in the search for what caused the accident.
It was on December 29 last year that a plane from the South Korean airline Jeju Air en route from Bangkok with 181 passengers on board made an emergency landing at Muan International Airport and subsequently crashed into a concrete foundation.
A preliminary investigation now shows that the plane was hit by birds shortly before the accident. Feathers and blood stains were found on both engines, indicating that it was a bird strike that forced the plane to make an emergency landing, writes BBC.
”Shooting to scare”
Aircraft colliding with birds is common, but fatality is very unusual, according to aviation journalist Jan Ohlsson.
– This happens. It's unpleasant for the passengers, there is damage to the aircraft, but there are never any fatalities.
To prevent bird collisions, airports have staff on site to scare away the birds.
– They have special personnel who shoot to scare them, he says.
A plane crash surrounded by mystery
Jan Ohlsson describes the plane crash as surrounded by mystery.
– You can draw conclusions about what happens at the beginning of the accident. Birds in a group and the main cause of the number of fatalities is the concrete foundation. But when it comes to what happened in between, there are still question marks, he says.
Source: SVT.SE
