The tragic crash of Jeju Air flight 7C2216 at Muan International Airport in Jeolla Province, South Korea, on Sunday (December 29), has sparked significant discussion among aviation experts and the public alike. Aviation analyst Alvin Lie raised the possibility of a malfunction in the aircraft’s hydraulic system as a critical factor in the accident that claimed the lives of 176 passengers.
Lie’s analysis was based on preliminary information released by South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, as well as visual evidence from the incident. According to Lie, the Boeing 737-800 aircraft failed to deploy its landing gear properly. Furthermore, video footage from the scene indicated that the wing flaps were not in the correct landing configuration, which would have compounded the difficulties faced by the pilot during the emergency landing.
“The aircraft seems to have encountered a technical problem with its hydraulic system, preventing the landing gear from extending. This likely caused the plane to approach the runway at an unusually high speed,” Lie stated in an interview with Media Indonesia on the same day of the incident.
Compounding the tragedy was a sequence of distressing events leading up to the crash. At 8:57 a.m. local time, air traffic control at Muan Airport issued a bird strike warning—an alert that a flock of birds was in the vicinity of the aircraft. Just a minute later, the pilot of flight 7C2216 declared a mayday. By 9:00 a.m., the plane had made contact with the runway, but within moments it skidded off course, collided with the airport’s perimeter fence, and erupted into flames.
Lie, however, expressed skepticism about attributing the crash solely to a bird strike. “Even if birds were ingested into one of the engines, modern aircraft are designed to operate safely with a single functioning engine. The bird strike may not have been the primary cause of this catastrophic accident,” he remarked.
The severity of the incident has underscored the importance of the aircraft’s black box in uncovering the sequence of events and technical failures that led to the disaster. The black box, comprising the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, is essential for providing a detailed reconstruction of the flight’s final moments. “Determining the exact cause of this tragedy requires a thorough analysis of the black box data. Until then, any conclusions about the incident remain speculative,” Lie emphasized.
As investigations continue, the aviation community is keenly awaiting answers that may improve future safety protocols and prevent similar disasters. In the meantime, questions remain about whether the bird strike warning, hydraulic failure, or a combination of factors ultimately led to the loss of 176 lives and a tragic chapter in aviation history.
