After deadly South Korean plane crash, airport’s runway design criticized
International investigators were to meet in South Korea Tuesday to probe the cause of the deadliest plane crash in the country’s history that had authorities rushing to identify victims and experts questioning elements of the airport’s runway design.
The National Police Agency says it is adding personnel and rapid DNA analyzers to hasten the identification of the five bodies still unidentified as of Tuesday.
Family members gathered at the country’s Muan International Airport, where the crash occurred Sunday, have pushed for faster identification and more information from authorities.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew members were killed when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall. Two crew members were pulled out alive.
South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok ordered an emergency safety inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airliners, after the Jeju Air crash killed almost all of the passengers on board.
South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation as investigators sought to find out what caused the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil.
The country’s Transportation Ministry said the black box flight recorder recovered from the crash site was missing key pieces and authorities were reviewing how to extract its data.
Inspections of all 101 B737-800s operated by South Korean airlines were scheduled to be completed by Jan. 3, while the airport will remain closed until Jan. 7, the ministry said.
Representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration, and aircraft manufacturer Boeing have joined the investigative body and plan to meet in Muan on Tuesday.
The NTSB said in a statement it sent three investigators to South Korea to assist the investigation, including people with specialties in operational factors and airworthiness.
“If we need more specialists we will send them,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said in an interview.
Questions about embankment, bird strikes
Investigators are examining bird strikes, whether any of the aircraft’s control systems were disabled, and the apparent rush by the pilots to attempt a landing soon after declaring an emergency as possible factors in the crash, fire and transportation officials have said.
Officials have also faced pointed questions about design features at the airport, particularly a large dirt-and-concrete embankment near the end of the runway used to support navigation equipment.
The plane slammed into the embankment at high speed and erupted into a fireball. Bodies and body parts were thrown into surrounding fields and most of the aircraft disintegrated in flames.
South Korean officials say the embankment was built according to standards, and that there are similar features at other airports including in the United States and Europe.
But many experts said its proximity to the end of the runway defied best practices and likely made the crash far more deadly than it may have been otherwise.
John Cox, the CEO of aviation consulting firm Safety Operating Systems and a former 737 pilot, said the runway design “absolutely” did not meet industry best practices, which preclude any hard structure like a berm within at least 300 metres of a runway’s end.
The airport’s concrete berm appears to be less than half that distance from the end of the pavement, according to an analysis of satellite images by Reuters.
South Korean officials have said the embankment is about 250 metres from the end of the runway itself, though a paved apron extends past that.
In video footage of the crash, the plane appeared to be slowing down and in control when it went off the runway, Cox said.
“When it hits that berm is when it turns into tragedy.”
Published at Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:26:16 +0000
Hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian POWs head home after swap
Ukraine and Russia carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war on Monday, with the two sides bringing home a combined total of more than 300 former captives.
Kyiv brought home 189 former captives, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Defence Ministry said, while the Russian ministry said 150 Russian servicemen were returning home.
The Russian ministry said the captives had been released in Belarus, Moscow’s close ally in the 34-month-old war with Ukraine, and would be transferred to Russia.
Reuters Television footage in Ukraine showed waiting spouses and some servicemen, many wrapped in blue and yellow national flags, weeping openly as they were reunited well after dark outside a building.
Ukrainian prisoners of war reunited with their families in an emotional scene on Monday after being released in a major swap between their country and Russia. One former prisoner said his five-year-old son likely didn’t recognize him as he last saw him when he was two.
A child’s incredulous voice resounded over a mobile telephone: “Dad, is that you?”
“My son is five years old now, the last time I saw him he was two years old,” said Serhii, who was captured by Russian forces at the Azovstal steel mill in the southern port Mariupol, which withstood a siege for nearly three months in 2022.
“That’s why my son probably didn’t recognize me. I used to have a beard and hair. I lost 20 kg.”
For some former captives, the return to freedom involved adjustment.
“Even now I’m holding my hands behind my back, it has become a habit of mine,” said Roman Borshch, 29. “Now I have to get used to being a free person again.”
Video posted by the Russian Defence Ministry showed smiling servicemen on a bus, some calling their families.
“We’ll soon be home. How are the children? How is our boy?” said one man.
“I am overwhelmed by emotion,” said another. “I still can’t quite believe that this has happened, that I am back home, that the ministry made such efforts, that we are remembered and valued.”
Zelenskyy thanked the United Arab Emirates and other partners for facilitating the swap. The United Arab Emirates acknowledged it had helped arrange the exchange.
“The return of our people from Russian captivity is always very good news for each of us. And today is one of such days: our team managed to bring 189 Ukrainians home,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.
There was no immediate explanation for why more Ukrainians than Russians were listed as released; the freed Ukrainians included civilians who had been in Russian captivity.
Zelenskyy said the returning Ukrainians included soldiers, sergeants and officers from different frontline areas, as well as two civilians who had been captured in the southern port of Mariupol.
Besieged steel mill
Denys Prokopenko, commander of the 12th Special Forces “Azov” Brigade that defended the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol before it was captured by Russian forces, said 11 of his men were among those returning. Prokopenko had been brought home in an earlier swap.
The Ukrainian body overseeing Ukrainian swaps said it was the 59th exchange between the two sides since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. That brought to 3,956 the number of Ukrainian detainees returned home.
It said those brought home this year included Ukrainian nationals serving what it described as “so-called sentences” imposed by Russian courts for various offences.
In the last swap in October, also carried out with assistance from the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Ukraine each brought home 95 detainees.
U.S. announces additional aid to Ukraine
The prisoner exchange came as the United States on Monday announced nearly $6 billion US in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kyiv before president-elect Donald Trump takes power.
Biden announced $2.5 billion US in additional security assistance for Ukraine.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States has made available $3.4 billion US in additional budget aid to Ukraine, giving the war-torn country critical resources amid intensifying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine, including about $2.5 billion in security assistance for the war-torn country. With Biden’s tenure ending in just a few weeks, the 82-year-old is using his final days in office to boost aid to Kyiv before president-elect Donald Trump takes power.
“At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden’s announcement includes $1.25 billion US in military aid drawn from U.S. stockpiles and a $1.22 billion US Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package, the final USAI package of Biden’s time in office.
Biden said the new assistance will provide Ukraine with “an immediate influx of capabilities that it continues to use to great effect on the battlefield and longer-term supplies of air defence, artillery, and other critical weapons systems.”
Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, but it is uncertain if the aid will continue at that pace under Trump, who succeeds Biden on Jan. 20.
Published at Mon, 30 Dec 2024 17:33:37 +0000
