Why was there a wall at the end of the runway

Aviation experts are questioning the role of an airport project that placed a dirt mound and concrete wall at the end of the runway where Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 crashed on Sunday morning, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.

Airplane, a Boeing 737-800, landed belly-up on the runway at Mueang International Airport in southwestern South Korea after a night flight, apparently with flaps and undercarriage retracted. The jetliner caught fire after hitting the ground and a wall where the localizer was installed, which directs the planes to the runway.

“It definitely made it more difficult to safely stop the plane,” said Todd Curtis, founder of Air Safe Media, which tracks aviation crashes and other incidents. Curtis worked at Boeing for nearly a decade as a safety engineer.

Crash investigators will need months, if not longer, to determine the cause of the crash, South Korea’s worst air crash and the deadliest in recent years. They will be learn everything from aircraft maintenance records to pilot scheduling to engine and cockpit recorders.

Initial reports indicate that a bird strike may have played a key role in the possible loss of the engine. Experts warned that the investigation is at a very early stage.

Some aviation experts say the death toll could have been minimized if the plane had not collided with the concrete wall.

In the video of the Jeju Air flight landing, “you can see the plane coming in, it’s slowing down, they’re slowing down, and things are going pretty well until they hit” the wall, said John Cox, an aviation safety consultant. and a Boeing 737 pilot.

Cox said he suspected the cause of death for most of the passengers on board was “blunt force trauma from impact with the wall”.

Barriers past airport runways are commonplace and recommended by international and other aviation authorities.

In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration requires a safe zone about 500 feet wide and 1,000 feet beyond the end of the runway to limit damage in the event of an aircraft overrunning the runway. But the FAA says the Runway Safe Area Program has other mitigation methods because many U.S. runways were built before the standard was established.

“While the initial projects to improve RSA have been completed, the program continues to evolve to address security risks and plan for future improvements,” the agency said.

For example, New York’s LaGuardia Airport and other airports have engineered material retention systems, or EMAS, erodible material that slows aircraft off the runway and prevents it from sliding into more dangerous areas. In 2016, then-Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence’s plane overran the runway at LaGuardia and was eventually stopped by EMAS.

The barrier at the edge of the runway at Muang International Airport did not appear to be fragile and could not collapse, according to video footage and expert analysis, which is likely to be the focus of investigators.