THE Jeju Air jet crash in South Korea and the failure of its black box may have been caused by a series of catastrophes sparked by a bird strike, an expert has said.
The crash at Muan International Airport on December 29 killed 179 people after the plane did an emergency landing, hit a concrete slab at the end of the runway, and exploded into a fireball.
Black smoke and flames pouring from the wreckage after it smashed into a concrete slab at the end of the runway
UKNIPThe plane landed on its belly and careered off before being stopped dead in its tracks by concrete[/caption]
It is hoped that the survivors can help shed light on what happened on board
On Saturday morning, the South Korean transport ministry revealed that flight data and cockpit voice recorders stopped processing data four minutes before the crash.
Investigators are now keen to discover how the aircraft’s black boxes – which are designed to be almost indestructible – stopped working at their most crucial moment.
Julian Bray, an aviation expert and major incident consultant spoke to The Sun about the ongoing investigation and shared his thoughts on what led to the deaths of 179 people and the black box failure.
He explained how the Honeywell black box likely stopped because of a power outage affecting the entire aircraft as older models do not have an independent power supply.
This sudden power cut could have been caused by the bird strike pilots reported to air traffic control moments before the disaster, Bray suggested.
In this scenario, the hydraulics controlling the undercarriage could have cut out which explains why it was not deployed, and the pilot may have had a reduced number of controls.
Bray told The Sun: “It sounds as though what happened is that the power circuit to the plane crashed out a little bit before the actual event.
“That would seem the most likely cause, which is annoying as you won’t have that vital four minutes which investigators need to try other methods of finding out what happened.”
“…then it becomes a forensic job. They will have to strip it[plane] apart then you’d be surprised what they can do to cover the data or most of the data.”
He added that teams will now look to use flight simulations to work out what really happened to the doomed jet in its final moments.
DOMINO EFFECT
The domino effect of catastrophic problems could have all started with damage from the bird strike which saw fragments enter the systems of the aircraft, cut power, and cause engine failure.
Bray said: “A heavy bird strike (a number of birds not just one) can actually take out the engine, but it can also cut the turbofan blades, which are carbon fibre.
“This might crack off and then go through the cowling, and it might cut a fuel line, might cut hydraulics. You don’t know.
“That’s what we’re going to find out when we get all these systems back in the simulator. So that could have caused a lot of damage.”
It is also believed that the aircraft had suffered engine failure being left with just one, but Bray added that another factor may have been at play which impacted where the plane crash-landed on its belly.
Witnesses have said that it looked as though the pilot only descended halfway down the runway, but Bray believes a pocket of air prevented him from landing earlier.
“He probably came down right at the beginning of the runway,” the expert said.
“But there’s an effect which is like an air bubble underneath the fuselage and the concrete runway so the aircraft can’t actually physically belly land on the runway.
“It’ll be held up by this cushion there and then, finally, that dissipates, and then it makes contact with the runway.
“It has then gone on at speed because it’s got no way of slowing this down, so it’s going at full speed along the runway.
“It’s got no braking system and [the pilot] can’t deploy any brakes at all and so it goes straight into the locator antenna array.”
This antenna is a system used to help pilots navigate landing in poor weather which is usually made up of a metal framework that falls down if an aircraft hits it.
However, at the Muan International Airport, their antenna was mounted on a 40cm thick concrete slab called a berm at the end of the runway and it is this, Bray believes, that made the crash so catastrophic.
He added: “The plane has come along and the nose has gone underneath the slab, which is then raised up at a 45-degree angle.
“The plane has gone in, and that’s when the fireball happened. That slab shouldn’t have been there.
“It’s just gone in, lifted it and stopped it dead and then, of course, the fireball happened.
“Quite frankly, the pilot didn’t have a chance.”
Had the concrete slab, which is against regulations not been there, the fireball may never have happened and more people may have survived, he said.
GettyFamilies of the victims are desperate for answers as investigators say the black box stopped recording minutes before the crash[/caption]
EPAInvestigators will have to collect all of the debris to try and reassemble the aircraft to find out what happened[/caption]
EPAAviation expert Julian Bray has called for a full investigation into the concrete slab holding the localizer at the end of the runway[/caption]
SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT
The only two survivors from the 181 people on board were in jump seats at the back of the aircraft.
Bray largely credited the emergency workers’ response with their survival as well as the fact that the tail of the plane is the only recognisable part of the wreckage, suffering the least damage.
“The emergency workers were very, very clever, and they got them out. So you really must admire their work, and they had a lot of people on site. They had over 1,500 people, emergency workers, firemen, officials,” he said.
“They had 35 fire engines there, which they brought them all in, so that’s quite impressive.”
While the loss of the black-box data is “disappointing” Bray says that the survivors will be able to help investigators in a major way.
“They can give an impression of what was happening inside the aircraft at the time,” he explained, adding that as staff members they will be aware of the procedure.
Bray said: “They will know what’s supposed to happen. And when it was supposed to happen. So that’d be very helpful.
“And it saves time because the more information they can get [the better] and they were there so they know exactly what was happening.
“So that would be good, and that’d be very helpful and it’s a few more pieces of jigsaw that they’re trying to put together.”
PIECES OF THE PUZZLE
As the investigation continues, authorities in South Korea have confirmed that the damaged black boxes have been sent to the US for decoding to see what data can be retrieved.
Meanwhile, Bray said that investigators will now turn to forensics where they transport all of the fragments of the aircraft to then reassemble it and work a backwards puzzle to find out what happened.
There will also be questions asked about if procedure was followed and if sabotage played any role in the incident.
Simulations will then be carried out to try to reconstruct what took place.
This is the start of a very long and detailed investigation and really, the more information we can recover the better.
Preliminary answers could be presented in as little as three months, Bray said, as investigators combine the information from the black boxes, the two survivors, satellite companies and other sources.
The aviation expert especially thanked The Sun which exclusively got hold of footage from the incident which has since been seen by experts around the globe.
“Somebody from Canada who’s an expert in concrete technology has actually sent some very interesting information over directly over to the investigators,” he said.
“That’s going to aid their particular investigation in one particular sphere so thank you.”
As the investigation continues, Bray has called for a “full investigation” into the concrete slabs at the airport.
“There’s a big question mark over these concrete slabs, they should not be there. I would like a full investigation into these.
“In fact, we need to look at all the airports in the country and elsewhere to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
South Korea has ordered emergency safety inspections across all of its airline operations and on all Boeing 737-800s as bosses have been called out for knowing about the dangers of the concrete slabs.
EPAIt is possible that all power onboard was cut after the plane suffered internal damage from the bird strike[/caption]
AFPThe salvaged second engine of the Boeing 737-800 will be used by experts for simulations to try and recreate what happened[/caption]
AFPSouth Korean officials have ordered emergency safety inspections across all of its airline operations and on all Boeing 737-800s[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
