Crashed jet's engines collided with spectacled teals at Muan Airport

Crashed jet's engines collided with spectacled teals at Muan Airport. January. 27, 2025 07:12. by Ho-Kyeong Kim kimhk@donga.com.
The birds that collided with both engines of the Jeju Air flight in the Muan International Airport passenger jet crash that killed 179 people on board were found to be spectacled teals, a winter migrant. The captain and co-pilot of the airliner recognized the flock of birds just before the collision, and airport closed-circuit (CC) TV footage showed the airliner hitting the birds.

The Land, infrastructure, and Transport Ministry's Air and Rail Accident Investigation Board (SARB) released the initial findings from its accident investigation to the victims' families at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province on Saturday. The results were based on on-site investigations, cockpit voice recorders (CVRs), flight data recorders (FDRs) also known as ‘black boxes,’ and air traffic control transcripts.

The agency requested genetic analysis of 17 feather and blood samples collected from both engines of the crashed airliner to the National Biological Resources Center under the environment ministry, which has determined the birds as spectacled teals. Spectacled teals are highly colonial birds, often flying in flocks of tens of thousands. It is believed that 300,000 birds winter in South Korea, with about 100,000 on the west coast.

According to the agency, the control tower at Muan Airport relayed a ‘bird activity alert’ to the airliner at 8:57:50 a.m. on Dec. 29 last year, about five minutes before the collision. At 8:58:11 a.m., the captain and first officer had a conversation about ‘spotting a flock of birds under the airliner,’ and 39 seconds later, at 8:58:50 p.m., both the CVR and FDR stopped recording. It is believed that right after the captain and first officer spotted a flock of birds, the airplane collided with them, which caused the airliner to lose power supply (shutdown).

CCTV footage from Muan Airport also captured the contact between the airliner and the flock. “The video was taken from a distance, so we were unable to confirm? the collision,” said an official at the board said. The agency plans to deliver its initial accident investigation to the International Civil Aviation Organization by Monday and publish it on its website. It will also continue to conduct a more detailed investigation to determine whether the fuselage and engine were abnormal.