Bird Strike Likely Cause of Fatal Air Accident in South Korea

The identification of the bodies of the victims of the air accident in the city of Muan, South Korea, is ongoing, and during the investigation into the cause of the accident, the possibility of a bird strike with the airplane has been raised as a potential reason. Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday morning that the identities of 141 bodies have been identified so far, and due to the destruction of the aircraft and the ejection of passengers, identifying the bodies is difficult. Two survivors of the incident are also hospitalized in Seoul. The Boeing aircraft of Jeju Air, carrying 181 passengers, went off the runway while landing in Muan on Sunday morning, and all passengers except for two crew members were killed. Investigations into the cause of the accident are ongoing, and according to South Korean officials, a bird strike may have caused the landing gear not to deploy during landing. According to the South Korean Ministry of Transportation, the airport control tower warned of a bird strike at 8:54, the pilot used the emergency code 'Mayday' at 8:59, and at 9:03 the plane landed with its wheels retracted. The Mayday emergency code, equivalent to the SOS code in Morse, is used when an aircraft is in significant danger and requires immediate assistance; in this situation, the pilot uses the term 'Mayday' (derived from the French word 'm'aider' meaning 'help me') one or more times. On Monday morning, the acting president of South Korea issued an emergency order for a safety inspection of the country's air system. Choi Sang-mook stated that to prevent a recurrence of this accident, the entire operational system of the country's aviation must undergo emergency safety inspections. He emphasized that the main priority at this time is 'identifying the victims, supporting their families, and treating the two survivors.' The South Korean Ministry of Transportation announced that it is examining whether all 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft in the country should undergo special inspections. A week of public mourning has been declared in South Korea, and the acting president has asked relevant officials to transparently announce the investigation process 'even before the final results are announced' and to quickly inform the grieving families. The incident on Sunday is the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil and the third deadliest incident involving an airline in the country. The downing of a Korean flight in 1983 in Soviet territory by a fighter jet resulted in 269 deaths. In 1997, a Korean aircraft also crashed in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific, killing 225 of its passengers.