South Korea plans to change structures near runways at several airports after last month's Jeju Air crash, when a plane landing on its belly slid into a concrete wall before exploding in a fireball.
At seven of South Korea's 14 domestic and international airports, structures containing antennas and other devices that help pilots navigate did not meet safety standards, the Transport Ministry said Monday.
The safety inspection was conducted after a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport on December 29, killing 179 of the 181 people on board. Officials are still investigating the cause of the accident, a process hampered by the flight recorder's failure to capture the last four minutes of data.
Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 descended without its wing flaps or landing gear deployed, then skidded across the runway and struck a concrete barrier containing a localizer, an antenna array used to guide aircraft during landing. Aviation safety experts have suggested that the collision with the barrier may have contributed to the high death toll. It was the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil.
Immediately after the crash, officials in South Korea said the barrier at the runway met safety regulations. But in the days that followed, they said they would review whether the barrier's placement and structure needed to be changed.
The Transport Ministry's investigation found that seven of the country's airports – including the one in Muan – had navigation equipment structures built from hard materials, such as concrete or steel, which could worsen damage if a plane collided with them would come after it had shot through the air. or deviating from a runway.
The ministry said it would finalize plans to improve the structures by the end of the month. The Korea Airports Corporation, a government-owned company that operates more than a dozen airports including Muan Airport, declined to comment on the Transportation Ministry's statement but said it would “cooperate with the government.”
South Korea has long been known for its leading air safety practices. The Jeju Air tragedy stunned the global aviation community and led some experts to call for a broader review of barriers near runways, not just in South Korea, but internationally.
The areas at an airport near runways, also called runway safety areas, are designed to provide an unobstructed zone for aircraft that may deviate from the runway during landing. All structures within these zones are considered to be frangible, meaning they must break or yield to minimize damage in the event of a crash, according to both United States and United Nations standards.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency that sets global safety standards, recommends that a standard buffer zone extend 300 meters (or 984 feet) from the end of a runway. However, that distance is a guideline, not a requirement.
At Muan Airport, the hard concrete structure surrounded by a mound of earth was about 250 meters from the end of the runway. Government researchers found that three smaller airports in South Korea – serving the cities of Gwangju, Yeosu, Pohang and Gyeongju – had similar above-ground concrete structures. Other airports had one with a concrete base that was partially above ground or completely above ground and made of steel.
At South Korea's main international hub, Incheon International Airport, localizers were housed in structures made of easily breakable materials, so were not considered a security risk, officials said.
At the same time, Sangdo Kim, a former South Korean ambassador to the UN Aviation Agency and Vice Minister of Civil Aviation, urged international action on the issue because South Korean officials discovered such wide variation in structures used to install navigational safety equipment. to assemble.
“To prevent the recurrence of similar accidents, all countries should monitor their local housing structures on a voluntary basis,” he said.
