The pilots of Jeju Air Flight 2216 signaled three totally different plans for touchdown the stricken airplane within the minutes earlier than it crashed and killed 179 folks in December, in response to a partial transcript of their communication with air visitors controllers obtained by The New York Instances.
The transcript reveals that the pilots reported a chook strike and radioed a mayday name as they approached Muan Worldwide Airport in South Korea on the morning of Dec. 29. They mentioned they’d flip left, then requested to show proper, meaning to method the airport’s sole runway from the south. When that failed, air visitors controllers requested in the event that they wished to land from the wrong way, and the pilots mentioned sure.
The airplane landed on its belly, overran the runway and struck a concrete construction that housed navigation aids, bursting right into a lethal fireball. Solely two folks — flight attendants on the very again of the airplane, a Boeing 737-800 — survived.
The reason for the catastrophe, the deadliest airplane crash on South Korean soil, continues to be being investigated, and the trade between the pilots and the management tower could possibly be a vital piece of the puzzle. That’s as a result of it covers a interval of about 4 minutes throughout which each of the airplane’s flight recorders, often called black containers, had stopped recording.
The transcript consists of no details about the state of the jet’s two engines or its electrical provide, that are intense areas of focus for investigators. It’s nonetheless unclear why the black containers went darkish or why the airplane’s touchdown gear was not engaged.
The transcript was learn out on Saturday to relatives of the victims by a consultant of a board that was set as much as examine the crash. The official informed them that the readout excluded components of the dialog to guard the privateness of its members, in response to individuals who shared it with The Instances. Officers haven’t publicly launched the transcript, and the board didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A number of investigations, together with one by the police, are underway in South Korea into the reason for the accident and components that may have made it deadlier, just like the strong concrete construction on the finish of the runway. American and French investigators are helping in one of many investigations.
A lot of what occurred on that December morning stays a thriller.
Because the airplane, which took off from Bangkok, approached Muan in southwestern South Korea, it started its descent, reaching an altitude of about 700 ft earlier than working into hassle.
First got here a warning: Air visitors controllers informed the pilots to be cautious as a result of there have been birds within the space. A couple of minute later, each of the airplane’s black containers — its flight information recorder and its cockpit voice recorder — stopped recording.
That outage has sophisticated the investigation. However movies shot by onlookers, a preliminary accident report issued by the Korean authorities, and now the transcript of the pilots’ trade with the management tower present some clues.
That is what we all know:
Round 8:58 a.m., the pilots reported a chook strike to the tower and declared their intention to show round. “Mayday, mayday,” one of many pilots mentioned. “Going round.”
Authorities later discovered feathers and blood from migratory geese often called baikal teals in each of the jet’s engines. Eyewitness movies additionally recorded a loud bang from the airplane’s proper engine, which aviation consultants have described as a compressor stall or a disruption within the engine’s airflow.
After the mayday name, the management tower informed the pilots to “preserve runway heading” and climb to five,000 ft. The pilots agreed.
That’s normal process when an plane is unable to land, in response to Hyoseok Chang, an assistant professor within the division of air transportation and logistics at Hanseo College in South Korea. In such procedures, the plane climbs to a protected altitude and waits in a holding sample.
However seconds after the pilots agreed to that plan, earlier than the airplane might attain 5,000 ft, the management tower pressed them to state their intention. They answered that they’d make a left flip and land shortly on Runway 1. (That’s skilled terminology for approaching the airport’s single runway from the south; Runway 19 refers to approaching it from the north.)
The pilots could have decided that “returning all the way in which to the holding level and trying one other method to Runway 1 might trigger additional points with the plane,” Professor Chang mentioned. The compressor stall noticed in movies signifies that there was an issue with not less than one of many jet’s engines.
Ten seconds later, the pilots reported that they had been unable to land. They requested whether or not they might “make a proper flip and head to Runway 1,” and the tower gave them permission to take action.
The transcript doesn’t clarify why this try failed, too. However at simply after 9:01 a.m., air visitors controllers requested whether or not the pilots wished to method the runway from the north. “Do you want to land on Runway 19?” the controllers requested.
The pilots mentioned sure, and the tower cleared them to land.
Lower than two minutes later, the airplane hit the tarmac with out its touchdown gear deployed. It skidded previous the tip of the runway, slammed into the concrete construction and burst into flames.
It isn’t clear what the air visitors controllers or the pilots knew concerning the concrete construction, which housed what is called an instrument touchdown system. Underneath worldwide security requirements, such buildings are presupposed to be constructed to break down on affect, however this one was not.
Agnes Chang contributed reporting.
