Duck feathers blamed as deadly crash rocks South Korea airport
A preliminary report by the South Korean Ministry of Transport reveals the presence of duck feathers in the engines of the Boeing 737-800 that crashed in December at Muan Airport.
At the end of December last year, a tragic airline disaster occurred at Muan Airport in South Korea. A Boeing 737-800, while landing, hit a concrete structure, causing it to catch fire. As a result of the accident, 179 people died, and two miraculously survived.
The South Korean Ministry of Transport released a preliminary report, which stated the discovery of duck feathers in both engines of the aircraft. The investigative commission examining the causes of the disaster also found traces of bird blood. Genetic tests showed that the feathers and blood belonged to the Baikal teal, a species of migratory duck from Siberia.
The pilots identified a group of birds while approaching runway 01, and a security camera filmed HL8088 coming close to a group of birds during a go-around — cites a report excerpt from the Citizen Digital.
Problems with recorders
The report indicates problems with the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which stopped operating four minutes before the collision. This makes it impossible to determine exactly when the aircraft collided with the flock of birds. Determining the cause of the failure of the recorders, as well as further data verification, will take several months.
The report emphasized that the captain of the aircraft had over 6,800 flight hours, and the first officer had 1,650 hours. The documentation regarding the accident was forwarded to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and aviation institutions in the USA, France, and Thailand.
