South Korean soldiers search for missing passengers near the wreckage of a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the plane crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province.
Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images
Moments before the crash of Jeju Air flight 2216, a passenger aboard texted a friend that the Boeing 737-800 aircraft had struck a bird.
“Wait a minute… we can’t land because a bird (or birds) caught in our wing,” the passenger said at 9 am local time, on a Korean messaging platform, KakaoTalk, according to messages widely shared in South Korean media, including CNN affiliate JTBC.
The possible bird strike, lack of landing gear deployment and concrete barrier all could have contributed to the aviation accident, which has been labeled as the deadliest in South Korea since 1997. However, the cause of the crash has yet to be determined just days after the tragedy. It could be months before we know why flight 2216 crashed. Sometimes, what the public believes caused a crash turns out to be far off base once an investigation concludes.
US officials, including the National Transportation Safety Board, plane maker Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, are working with South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board to provide more information about the incident.
Despite the crash, the Boeing 737-800 has a very strong safety record, unlike its successor 737 Max model that has had numerous problems. Boeing data from 1995 to 2023 shows the 737-800 recorded just 10 fatal accidents that damaged aircraft beyond repair, one of lowest rates in the industry when compared to the number of flights they’ve flown.
Additionally, South Korea’s safety record has been exceptional, according to Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit that identifies global safety issues to improve aviation.
He said South Korean airlines all have safety management systems in place and have done well with respect to International Civil Aviation Organization audits that have been performed. ICAO is the United Nations agency that helps 193 countries work together in air travel.
This accident is very, very sad with the loss of life that we have seen,” Shahidi said. “It’s a complicated accident that involves many, many different factors that the investigators will be looking into to really understand the confluence of those factors that led to this disaster.”
