In a tragic turn of events last month, a passenger jet crashed at Muan International Airport in South Korea's southwest, resulting in the loss of 179 lives out of 181 onboard. The Transport Ministry revealed that the aircraft's black box ceased recording just one minute after a bird strike warning was issued.
The incident unfolded on December 29 when the flight attempted to land without proper coordination, skidding off the runway and colliding with a concrete mound equipped with a localizer, a critical component of the instrument landing system that guides aircraft to the runway centerline.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Aviation Railway Accident Investigation Committee, the flight's data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) stopped functioning simultaneously following the bird strike. CCTV footage from the airport confirmed that the plane collided with a flock of birds, leaving behind feathers and bloodstains from one of the nation's common winter birds on both engines.
Preliminary analysis suggests that the bird strike led to a power loss when both engines were affected, prompting one of the pilots to declare a Mayday while attempting a go-around maneuver. Unfortunately, the power cut halted all recording a minute after the initial warning, making it challenging to fully understand the sequence of events that led to the crash.
The aviation community is now focusing on enhancing bird strike prevention measures and improving aircraft resilience to such incidents to prevent future tragedies.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
