South Korea is planning to modify structures near runways at several airports after last month's Jeju Air crash, in which a plane landed belly-first, slid into a concrete wall, and then exploded into a fireball. It is standing.
South Korea's Ministry of Transport announced on Monday that structures housing antennas and other equipment that assist pilots in navigation at seven of South Korea's 14 domestic and international airports do not meet safety standards.
The safety inspection was conducted after a Jeju Air jet crashed into Muan International Airport on December 29, killing 179 of the 181 people on board. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident, but the investigation has been hampered by flight recorders failing to capture data from the last four minutes.
Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 descended without deploying its wing flaps or landing gear, skidding over the runway and crashing into a concrete barrier that houses a localizer, an antenna array that guides aircraft when landing. Aviation safety experts have suggested that collisions with barriers may have contributed to the high death toll. It became the deadliest plane crash in mainland South Korea.
Immediately after the crash, South Korean authorities announced that the fence near the runway met safety regulations. But in the days that followed, they said they would consider whether the barrier's placement and construction needed to be changed.
According to a study by the Ministry of Transport, at seven of the country's airports, including Muan Airport, structures with navigation equipment are made of hard materials such as concrete and steel, which can prevent aircraft from crashing after overshooting. It turns out that the damage could be even worse. or deviate from the runway.
The ministry said it would finalize the structural improvement plan by the end of this month. The Korea Airports Corporation, a state-owned company that operates more than a dozen airports including Muan, declined to comment on the Transport Ministry's statement but said it would “cooperate with the government.”
South Korea has long been considered an advanced country in aviation safety measures. The Jeju Air tragedy shocked the global aviation community, prompting some experts to call for a broader review of barriers near runways in South Korea and internationally.
The area of ​​the airport near the runway is known as the Runway Safety Area and is designed to provide an unobstructed zone for aircraft that may deviate from the runway during landing. According to standards set by both the United States and the United Nations, structures within these zones are considered fragile and must break or collapse to minimize damage in the event of a collision.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations agency that sets global safety standards, recommends that standard buffer zones extend 300 meters (984 feet) from the end of the runway. However, this distance is a guideline, not a requirement.
At Muan Airport, about 250 meters from the end of the runway was a hard concrete structure surrounded by mounds of dirt. Government investigators found that three small South Korean airports serving the cities of Gwangju, Yeosu, Pohang and Gyeongju have similar above-ground concrete structures. Other airports had concrete foundations that partially protruded above the ground, while others were completely above ground and made of steel.
At Incheon International Airport, South Korea's main international hub, localizers are housed in structures made of fragile materials and are not considered safety risks, officials said.
At the same time, Kim Sun-do, former South Korean ambassador to the United Nations Aviation Agency and vice-minister of civil aviation, said it was because South Korean authorities had discovered such wide variation in the structures used to install navigational safety equipment that the issue had become an international issue. called for action.
“All countries should voluntarily check localizer housing structures to avoid repeating similar accidents,” he said.
