Reuters on January 17 quoted a source as saying that investigators found bird feathers and blood in both engines of the Korean Jeju Air plane, not just one engine as previously announced.
Jeju Air plane wreckage at the accident scene
The Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people from Bangkok (Thailand) to Muan (South Korea) on December 29, 2024 encountered a problem and had to land on its belly. The plane crashed into a mound at the end of the runway and exploded, killing 179 people. Two flight attendants sitting at the back of the plane survived.
About 4 minutes before the accident, a pilot announced that the plane had hit a bird and activated an emergency. The plane could not land on the first try and had to circle and land on the opposite side of the runway.
Two minutes before the emergency call, air traffic control urged pilots to be careful due to flocks of birds in the area.
Investigators this month announced they found feathers in an engine of the ill-fated Jeju Air plane. They also said that recorded footage showed birds flying into one engine, but according to Reuters sources, both engines were covered in bird feathers and blood.
The Korean Ministry of Transport has not commented on Reuters’ information. Both of the plane’s black boxes stopped working about four minutes before the accident, making it more difficult to determine the cause.
Cases of birds falling into both aircraft engines are rare in global aviation. In 2009, a passenger plane encountered a similar situation in New York (USA) but successfully landed in the Hudson River and no one was killed. A similar rare case occurred in Russia in 2019 when a plane landed in a corn field.
