South Korea… modifications at seven airports after the Jeju Air plane accident

The South Korean authorities announced today, Wednesday, that they will introduce modifications to the concrete barriers used in some of the country’s airports, after the Jeju Air plane accident, which left 179 people dead at the end of last December in Muan (southwest).
On December 29, a Boeing 747 plane belonging to the low-cost airline “Jeju”, coming from Bangkok, landed without wheels on the runway at Muan Airport (southwest), then slid and, seconds later, collided with a cement wall at the end and turned into a fireball.
The accident resulted in the deaths of all those on Flight 2216 except for two crew members, in the worst aviation disaster in South Korea.

Possible causes

Attention has focused on several possible causes, but questions have been raised about why there was a concrete structure with a GPS device installed at the end of the runway.
The Ministry of Planning, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement that “a safety review and audit revealed the need for modifications to GPS devices at seven airports in the country,” especially those in Muan and Jeju Island, including “replacing foundations with lightweight steel structures.”
The National Institute of Biological Resources in South Korea reported that “feathers were found in the engines” of the ill-fated plane.

SOS

The hypothesis of a collision with birds was raised to explain the accident. The Muan Airport control tower issued a warning to this effect to the plane’s crew three minutes before the crash. The plane’s pilot also sent a distress call before the emergency landing.
Investigator Lee Seung-yeol announced in a press conference, “Feathers were found in one of the two engines,” but he clarified that colliding with a bird does not immediately cause the engine to malfunction.
Investigators face another difficulty, which is that the black boxes stopped recording flight data four minutes before the accident.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Saturday that the closure of Muan Airport has been extended by three months, until April 18.