The pilots of the South Korean aircraft collapsed and caused the death of 179 people stopped the wrong engine, a recent report shows.
179 people lost their lives in the non-Blend photo crash
The Council for Aerial and Railway Aviliation Investigation (ARAIB) has established that the right engine of the Boeing 737 aircraft, operated by Jeju Air, stopped after the plane hit a flock of ducks, but the left engine continued to operate, according to The Telegraph.
However, instead of stopping the damaged engine, the pilots cut the supply of the still working, leaving the plane without any operational engine.
“It is possible that the pilot would have stopped the engine by mistake.”investigators said.
The recording of the pilot cabin surprised the moment when the pilot said “Stop the number two engine”however, the flight data shows that, in reality, the pilots stopped the number one engine – probably by mistake, under the pressure of the situation.
An official declared for the South Korea MBN television station: “The pilot should have stopped the right engine, which had been badly damaged as a result of the impact with the birds, but stopped the left engine, which was still working. The black box and the electric power supply were interrupted.”
The Jeju Air flight pilots also activated the fire extinguisher on the left engine, which makes it impossible to restart during the flight, the report shows.
Information about the role of pilots in the Juju Air flight tragedy comes less than a week after finding out that in the Air India accident, resulted in the deaths of 241 of the 242 passengers, a pilot stopped the fuel power.
The South Korean plane, which collapsed on December 29, 2024, reached the soil at a dangerously high speed, without the landing train, and exploded after hitting a slope at the end of the track.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew members have died, in the worst aviation disaster in South Korea in recent decades.
The pilots of flight 2216 also ignored the correct landing procedure after a collision with birds, choosing to climb the plane again and then make a hasty landing in the opposite direction, on the same track.
The impact with the birds took place while the aircraft was preparing to descend to the Muan International Airport, located in the south of the country.
The airport control tower issued a warning at 08:57, signaling bird activity in the area, and a minute later, the pilot reported a bird collision and launched a Mayday call.
Subsequent video recordings have shown that the right -wing engine caught fire, and the investigation discovered feathers and traces of duck in both engines.
Araib presented their conclusions on Saturday, but the families of the victims have accused officials of blaming the pilots unfairly, at the press conference.
The investigators were forced to quickly withdraw the copies of the report, claiming that the document had not yet been officially issued.
They continue to claim that there have been no defects of the engines or mechanical errors, although the energy supply of the flight recorders has been interrupted in the last four minutes of the flight, which means that there could be key information that is not known.
Kim Yu-Jin, the leader of the bereaved families group, said: “When investigators formulate a position, it should be accompanied by documents to support it and convince families that those conclusions are inevitable. We have only the conclusions were presented.”
“I repeatedly asked them to be cautious with these statements, because the way the results of the investigation can be communicated can influence the compensations received by the families.”
