Two Crewmembers Survive After Aircraft Makes Gear-Up Landing

On December 29, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 performed a gear-up landing and slid into a wall -- inexplicably placed right off the end of a runway. The tragic accident killed 179 people, leaving two crewmembers as the only survivors.

Jeju Air Flight 7C 2216 took off from Thailand’s Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK) in a Boeing 737-800, registered as HL8088, at 19:28 UTC. 181 passengers and crew were on board for the seemingly uneventful flight.

At 23:57 UTC, while on final approach into Muan International Airport (MWX) in South Korea, Muan Tower notified pilots of bird activity near the runway. Two minutes later, the flight called in an emergency. The flight crew reported, "Mayday, mayday, mayday ... Bird strike, bird strike, going around."

The pilots decided to perform a 180-degree turn to land back on Muan’s runway 19, which currently has 2500 m available for landing due to ongoing construction. The aircraft then touched down without landing gear around one-third of the way down the runway. It then skidded off the end of the runway and into the ILS localizer antenna structure and a wall.

The tail detached from the fuselage just as the jet burst into flames, killing 179 passengers on board. The only two survivors were seated in the aircraft’s tail. They were quickly rescued and taken to a hospital in Mokpo, where they are now both reportedly stable.

Until further investigation is conducted, it is rumored but not confirmed, that a bird strike is to blame. The NTSB has agreed to work with the Republic of Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) on the case.

The tragic crash is now the third-deadliest aviation accident in South Korean history. It follows a Korean Air flight being shot down by a Soviet fighter jet in 1983, killing 269 people, and another Korean Air jet that crashed in Guam in 1997, leaving 225 dead.

FMI: https://araib.molit.go.kr/intro.do