In response to Sunday’s tragedy involving Jeju Air flight 7C2216, the transport ministry of South Korea called an urgent meeting with the CEOs of eleven airlines.
Additionally, as authorities begin to remove the burned-out wreckage of the Jeju Air plane, it has extended mandatory inspections of the nation’s Boeing 737-800 fleet by an additional week for further examinations.
South Korea holds meeting with airline CEOs
The crash on Sunday was the deadliest on South Korean territory and the greatest air disaster to hit the nation since the 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam, killing 179 of the 181 passengers and crew members on board.
To address safety measures, the CEOs of several airlines, notably Asiana Airlines and Korean Air Lines, met urgently with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.
Authorities are still investigating why the plane’s landing gear was not extended and why the pilots made such a quick landing after flying around in the incident. Another concern is if the Instrument Landing System (ILS) localizer at the end of the runway at Muan Airport broke any rules.
In order to gather evidence, police recently searched Jeju Air’s offices, Muan Airport, and regional aviation authorities. Although no one was taken into custody, Jeju Air’s CEO has been prohibited from leaving the nation until further notice.
Aircraft and airport inspections
Following the accident, officials mandated that the whole nation’s fleet of 737-800 airplanes—the kind of aircraft involved in the crash—be inspected. The deadline was originally set for January 3rd, however it has already been extended to January 10th.
According to the ministry of transportation, it will carefully examine landing gear, engines, and maintenance documents. Although it hasn’t grounded the 737-800, it stated that if infractions are found, it wouldn’t think twice about doing so or even stopping an airline’s operations completely.
In order to find any safety issues or dangers, the transportation ministry has also started inspecting airport infrastructure nationwide.
Contrary to international standards that require such structures to be destructible or “frangible” in order to limit damage to aircraft in the event of overruns, the localizer at Muan Airport was integrated into a two-meter-high concrete structure.
A Maeil Business study claims that Yeosu Airport, Gwangju Airport, and Pohang Gyeongju Airport are among the few other airports in the nation that have comparable inflexible structures at the end of their runways.
Authorities begin lifting wreckage
Investigators are sifting through the debris of the aircraft, which has been at the location since the accident on Sunday. Sections of the wrecked airplane are currently being lifted by a crane, and officials anticipate finding more human remains in these areas.
Choi Sang-mok, the acting president of South Korea, has instructed investigators to collect evidence as soon as possible in order to determine the crash’s causes.
The flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR), the plane’s two black boxes, have been recovered, albeit the latter was damaged in the crash and is being transferred to the United States for additional examination.
Investigators will probably have a clear understanding of what transpired in the cockpit in the seconds before the crash because they were able to successfully extract data from the CVR and turn it into an audio file.
To assist the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in its work, South Korea has dispatched members of its accident investigation team to the United States.
In order to piece together the events, investigators are also currently examining data from more than 100 cell phones that belonged to passengers in the collision. This data includes voice and text messages.
