South Korean plane crash report says bird remains were found in engines

The initial report on last month's plane crash involving Jeju Air in South Korea has confirmed the presence of bird strike traces in the aircraft's engines. Despite this, officials have not yet determined the cause of the accident, which resulted in the deaths of all but two of the 181 people on board.

The preliminary accident report released Monday by the Korea Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board stated that feathers and bird blood stains were found in both engines. "Samples have been sent to a specialized institution for DNA analysis, and a domestic agency determined they belonged to a green-winged teal," the report noted, identifying it as a migratory bird.

The report also indicated that the aircraft's two black boxes—the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder—stopped recording approximately four minutes before the crash. This could complicate efforts to find the cause of the accident. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft skidded off the runway at Muan International Airport on December 29 after its landing gear failed to deploy, colliding with a concrete structure and catching fire.

The flight was returning from Bangkok, and all those killed were South Korean nationals except for two Thai citizens. Many analysts have suggested that the concrete structure, which housed a set of antennas known as a localizer used to guide aircraft during landing, should have been built with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact. Last week, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced that the concrete structure at the airport would be removed.

Investigators had previously stated that air traffic controllers had warned the pilots of a possible bird strike two minutes before the plane issued a distress signal confirming a bird strike event, after which the pilots attempted an emergency landing. The preliminary report stated that the pilots also noticed a flock of birds while approaching the runway at Muan Airport, and security cameras captured the aircraft approaching birds during an aborted landing attempt.

The report states that authorities will disassemble the engines for a thorough examination of their components, analyze the black boxes and air traffic control data, and investigate the embankment, the localizer, and the bird strike evidence. "These full-scale investigative activities aim to accurately determine the cause of the accident," the report stated. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport said that the preliminary report had been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization, Thailand, the United States, and France. The ministry indicated that the aircraft was manufactured in the United States and its engines in France. Muan Airport will be closed until April 18.