The pilots of Jeju Air Flight 2216 signaled three totally different plans for touchdown the stricken aircraft within the minutes earlier than it crashed and killed 179 individuals in December, in keeping with a partial transcript of their communication with air site visitors controllers obtained by The New York Instances.
The transcript exhibits that the pilots reported a fowl strike and radioed a mayday name as they approached Muan Worldwide Airport in South Korea on the morning of Dec. 29. They stated they’d flip left, then requested to show proper, meaning to method the airport’s sole runway from the south. When that failed, air site visitors controllers requested in the event that they wished to land from the other way, and the pilots stated sure.
The aircraft landed on its stomach, overran the runway and struck a concrete construction that housed navigation aids, bursting right into a lethal fireball. Solely two individuals — flight attendants on the very again of the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 — survived.
The reason for the catastrophe, the deadliest aircraft 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 aircraft’s flight recorders, generally known as black packing 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 packing containers went darkish or why the aircraft’s touchdown gear was not engaged.
The transcript was learn out on Saturday to kin of the victims by a consultant of a board that’s investigating the crash. The official advised them that the readout excluded components of the dialog to guard the privateness of its contributors, in keeping with 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 elements that may have made it deadlier, just like the strong concrete construction on the finish of the runway. American and French investigators are aiding in one of many investigations.
A lot of what occurred on that December morning stays a thriller.
Because the aircraft, which took off from Bangkok, approached Muan in southwestern South Korea, it started its descent, reaching an altitude of about 700 ft earlier than operating into hassle.
First got here a warning: Air site visitors controllers advised the pilots to be cautious as a result of there have been birds within the space. A few minute later, each of the aircraft’s black packing containers — its flight information recorder and its cockpit voice recorder — stopped recording.
That outage has difficult 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 fowl strike to the tower and declared their intention to show round. “Mayday, mayday,” one of many pilots stated. “Going round.”
Authorities later discovered feathers and blood from migratory geese generally known as baikal teals in each of the jet’s engines. Eyewitness movies additionally recorded a loud bang from the aircraft’s proper engine, which aviation specialists have described as a compressor stall or a disruption within the engine’s airflow.
After the mayday name, the management tower advised the pilots to “keep runway heading” and climb to five,000 ft. The pilots agreed.
That’s customary process when an plane is unable to land, in keeping with 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 may 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 making an attempt one other method to Runway 1 may trigger additional points with the plane,” Professor Chang stated. The compressor stall noticed in movies signifies that there was an issue with no 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 may “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 site 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 stated sure, and the tower cleared them to land.
Lower than two minutes later, the aircraft 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 site visitors controllers or the pilots knew in regards to the concrete construction, which housed what is named an instrument touchdown system. Beneath worldwide security requirements, such buildings are purported to be constructed to break down on affect, however this one was not.
Agnes Chang contributed reporting.
