Analysis: South Korea airport design was 'unbelievably awful'

An aviation expert has told Sky News a poorly designed airport was the reason why a passenger jet crashed into a wall, killing 179 people.

David Learmount said many passengers would have survived the crash landing if a solid structure had not been built at the end of the runway.

The Jeju Air plane, which was carrying 181 people, veered off the runway and into a wall before bursting into flames in the South Korean city of Muan.

A bird strike and the landing gear failing to open correctly are possible causes of the crash.

#southkorea #planecrash #skynews

[rjjoenb]

A wall at the end of a runway is insane

[teohyc]

Bird strikes did not kill them. The pilot landed the plane PERFECTLY without wheels, only to crash into a wall which killed them. Criminal, yes.

[aaronjohnson]

I just can't get over the fact that this was totally survivable... so sad.

[romanporetti]

As a Pilot, that was the first thing that came to my mind. Who the F*ck builds a Concrete wall at the and of a Runway. Thats so stupid, im sorry i cant say it different. After a Runway should always be an engineered material arresting system (EMAS).
Everybody on board could have survived…

[martindavis]

It takes a major incident to notice the bad design. Shocking

[ivanbakhvalov]

Imagine the pilot fighting for his plane and passengers, making safe belly landing only to see that wall he didn't account for.

[Monicalia]

The fact everyone could have possibly survived if it wasn't for that wall. It's beyond infuriating.

[imkeerock]

747 Captain here. The first thing I said after I saw this accident was, "Who the F@$K puts a wall at the end of a runway?!?!

[SpuddersSpud-psdd]

The plane kept them alive, the airport killed them. Dreadfully sad. Harrowing seeing this footage. RIP to all those souls.

[mikeyrichards]

I was a pilot for 30 years. Pretty much every airport I’ve landed at had a chain link fence, which a plane will go right through. Airports usually anticipate things like this will happen, or at least they’re supposed to!

[shovanabajracharya]

"Not only is there no justification, it's verging on criminal to have that wall there." That sums it up. No more further explanation needed.

[chidenisee]

As a flight attendant one of my companies plane slid off the end of the runway on the US. Thank goodness there was dirt and a slight slope and just a chain link fence. No one was seriously hurt. I landed once at PHL with no landing gear, we also just slid on the belly of the plane until we came to a stop in a dirt embankment at the end of the runway. It scares me to think what would have happened if there was a wall there.

[sobang]

Not one Korean media is focusing on the concrete wall at the end of the runway as the main cause of the mass casualty. It's like as if they were told not to do so. I hope many foreign people would visit the youtube channels of Korean media and tell them to focus on this fact. Korean ministry of infrastructure and transport announced that there was nothing wrong with the airport itself. This is a very strange time for my country.

[lastcommodore]

Every major airport in the world is now being scrutinized for similar obstructions.

[maxmudc]

I couldn't agree more with David. Emergency landings and overruns could happen anytime. It's criminal to build such a deadly barrier at the end of the runway.

[hanson]

This is not the first major accident that has cost hundreds of lives in Korea due to incompetence. The Sewol Ferry disaster should have been a wake up call for the country to re-examine all existing protocol and infrastructure related to public transport and safety. This disaster was totally avoidable and people need to be held accountable.

[enticingmay]

Every airport in the world needs to be inspected to make sure that this never happens again.

[concretepoetry_]

We are in South Korea, and are seeing all the media news and postings and I have not Seen ANY media talk about this wall being at the end of the runway. As if they dont want to mention it.

[inbt]

This analysis is significant. None of the SKorean medias are mentioning about the airport’s odd structure, but only speaking about bird strike on engines and landing gears failure.
Some ppl suspects that it’s the government to avoid the responsibility of indemnification, distracting the point by blaming birds and aircraft’s technical failure so they can shift the responsibility to Jeju airline company..

[airjordan]

Criminal negligence, yes absolutely criminal