GS PAPER III - Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

• Boeing 737-800 model met with accident at Muan airport.
• Jeju Air flight 7C2216 left from Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi airport, approached Muan international airport in South Korea, air traffic control cleared its landing on the single runway and cautioned of bird activity.
• While landing it was met with accident due to bird hit and failure of landing gear.
• The touchdown, with the landing gear up, had the crippled craft hurtling on its fuselage and engines, and impacting a concrete structure at the runway end.

Likely bird hit?

• The air-field’s environs surrounded by oceanic setting and wetland hosted a variety of avian life. The airport uses non-lethal and lethal bird scare techniques during operating hours.

What Korean Authority says?

• Focus is the ‘unusual concrete wall’, which the Korean authorities have said is ‘found in other airports in Korea’, and was built according to the country’s code. Whether this follows ICAO’s Annex 14 (Standards – Aerodrome) will need investigation.

Steps followed

• Representatives from the U.S.’s NTSB, the FAA, and the aircraft manufacturer, Boeing to probe the issues.