Learning lessons: on the air crash in South Korea
Flight crew all over the world need better training for rare emergencies
The grim footage of a Boeing 737-800 sliding across the runway at Muan airport, to end as a fireball extinguishing 179 lives, will forever be a reminder of an air crash that holds important lessons for everyone from airport authorities to aviation regulators to airline pilots. Jeju Air flight 7C2216, on a scheduled flight from Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi airport, was on approach to Muan international airport in South Korea’s southwestern corner after air traffic control cleared its landing on the single runway. There was also a caution of bird activity. The airfield’s environs — an oceanic setting, with also some wetland — are known to host a variety of avian life. The airport uses non-lethal and lethal bird scare techniques during operating hours. From that point on, the aircraft transitioned from what seemed a stable approach to a phase of multiple issues, with “mayday, mayday, mayday, bird hit” being one such call by the crew who were in apparent distress. The go around and subsequent landing have led aviation experts to raise questions about the responses by the crew and also that of air traffic control. The touchdown, with the landing gear up, had the crippled craft hurtling on its fuselage and engines, and impacting a concrete structure at the runway end housing crucial ground-based landing aids. In focus is the ‘unusual concrete wall’, which the Korean authorities have said is ‘found in other airports in Korea’, and was built according to the country’s code. Whether this follows ICAO’s Annex 14 (Standards – Aerodrome) will need investigation. Some accident investigators have called this the key factor that trumped operational safety, overwhelming the ‘flapless gearless’ landing.The accident, South Korea’s worst in decades, comes amidst a political crisis. However, the new acting President, Choi Sang-mok, seems to be steering the response with a task force in place and the authorities having been instructed to review aviation operations and inspect airline fleets. The Ministry of Transport’s highlighting of several issues would need a thorough probe, especially with representatives from the U.S.’s NTSB, the FAA, and the aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, on board. Boeing will again find the spotlight back on its workhorse, the 737. While the accident is the first for Jeju Air, a popular 41-jet budget airline, air safety in South Korea is generally considered to be of industry best practice. Every accident has its lessons, and for India too, with air travel on the rise, there must be a thorough review of every aspect of crew training as well as of runway safety at its 157 operational airports.