A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 taking off from Osaka Kansai Airport.
Fabrizio Gandolfo | Light rocket | Getty Images
Accident investigators are trying to figure out what caused a Jeju Air flight to land without landing gear at South Korea's Muan International Airport, killing all but two of the 181 people on board when the flight caught fire during the country's worst air disaster. in decades.
South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok has ordered an emergency inspection of the country Boeing 737-800s, the type of aircraft used on the fatal Jeju Air flight 7C2216.
The Boeing 737-800 is one of the world's most widely used aircraft and has a strong safety record. It predates the Boeing 737 Max, the type involved in two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed all 346 people on board those flights. The 737 Max was grounded for almost two years.
Nearly 4,400 of the 737-800s are in service worldwide, according to aviation data company Cirium. That means the model makes up about 17% of the world's commercial passenger aircraft fleet.
According to Cirium, the average age of the world's 737-800 fleet is thirteen years old, and the last of the series of aircraft was delivered about five years ago.
Jeju Air has taken delivery of the plane involved in this weekend's crash in 2017. According to Flightradar24, it was previously operated by European discount airline Ryanair. The aircraft involved in the crash was approximately 15 years old.
Aerospace experts say researchers are unlikely to find a design problem with the long-flying plane.
“The idea that they will find a design flaw at this point is unthinkable,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consultancy.
A full investigation could take more than a year, and the unusual incident has raised more questions than answers, including why the landing gear did not deploy. Even in the event of a hydraulic failure, Boeing 737-800 pilots can manually drop the landing gear.
One theory concerns a possible bird strike that disabled the engines.
“If that happens at the altitude they were at, they may not have had time to do emergency checklists,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety researcher with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. He also said that if the plane had not hit a hard wall at the end of the runway, the accident would have been more survivable.
The NTSB leads the U.S. team of investigators, which also includes Boeing and the FAA, since the aircraft was manufactured and certified in the United States.
According to international protocols, the country where the accident occurred will lead the overall investigation.