South Korea plans to vary constructions close to runways at a number of airports after final month Jeju Air Crashwhen a belly-landing aircraft slid right into a concrete wall earlier than exploding in a fireball.
At seven of South Korea’s 14 home and worldwide airports, the constructions that home antennas and different gadgets that assist pilots navigate don’t meet security requirements, the transport ministry stated Monday.
The security test was carried out after a Jeju Air passenger jet crashed at Mueang Worldwide Airport on December 29, killing 179 of the 181 folks on board. Officers are nonetheless investigating the reason for the incident, a course of that has been hampered by failure of the flight recorder to seize the final 4 minutes of knowledge.
Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 descended with out flaps or touchdown gear, then skidded off the runway, crashing right into a concrete barrier that contained a localizer, an antenna array used to information the aircraft throughout touchdown. Aviation security consultants have suggested that collision with the barrier could have contributed to the excessive loss of life toll. It was the deadliest plane accident on South Korean soil.
Instantly after the crash, officers in South Korea stated the barrier close to the runway met security rules. However within the coming days, they stated they might overview whether or not the placement and construction of the barrier needs to be modified.
The Transport Ministry’s overview confirmed that at seven of the nation’s airports – together with the one in Muan – navigational constructions have been constructed with inflexible supplies, akin to concrete or metal, which might exacerbate injury if a aircraft collided with them after overshooting or going off monitor.
The ministry stated it will finalize plans to enhance the constructions by the top of the month. Korea Airports Company, a state-owned firm that operates greater than a dozen airports, together with Mueang Airport, declined to touch upon the transport ministry’s assertion however stated it “will cooperate with the federal government.”
South Korea has lengthy been thought-about its personal leading air safety practices. The Jeju Air tragedy shocked the worldwide aviation group and led some consultants to name for a wider overview of runway obstacles not solely in South Korea however internationally.
The areas of an airport close to the runways, often known as runway security areas, are designed to supply an obstacle-free zone for plane which will deviate from the runway throughout touchdown. All constructions in these areas are assumed to be brittle, which means they need to break or yield to attenuate injury in a crash, in response to requirements set by each the US and the United Nations.
The Worldwide Civil Aviation Group, a United Nations company that units international security requirements, recommends that the usual buffer zone prolong 300 meters, or 984 ft, from the top of the runway. Nevertheless, this distance is a suggestion, not a requirement.
At Muan Airport, the stable concrete construction, which was surrounded by a pile of filth, lay about 250 meters from the top of the runway. Authorities investigators discovered that three smaller airports in South Korea, which serve the cities of Gwangju, Yeosu, Pohang and Gyeongju, have related above-ground concrete constructions. Different airports had concrete foundations that protruded partially above the bottom or have been completely above floor and product of metal.
At South Korea’s predominant worldwide hub, Incheon Worldwide Airport, the locators have been housed in constructions product of simply breakable supplies and have been due to this fact not thought-about a security danger, officers stated.
On the similar time, Sangdo Kim, a former South Korean ambassador to the United Nations Aviation Company and vice minister of civil aviation, known as for worldwide motion on the difficulty as a result of South Korean officers discovered such all kinds within the constructions used to mount navigation security gadgets.
“To forestall related accidents from taking place once more, all international locations ought to voluntarily examine their localizer designs,” he stated.
