Potentially fatal mid-air bird strikes and rare ‘black swan’ events capable of bringing down a passenger plane could become more frequent, aviation experts fear.
It comes after a jet in South Korea crash-landed on its belly before skidding off the runway and blowing up, killing all but two the 181 people on board, minutes after a reported a bird strike.
Doomed Jeju Air flight 2216 from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport, exploded when it ploughed into a brick wall on Sunday, in South Korea’s deadliest air accident ever.
The early theory was that the impact of the birds on the jet led to the failure of the engine powering the landing gear, which in turn caused the fatal belly landing.
However, Tim Davies, an ex-RAF Tornado fighter pilot, was skeptical this was the sole cause of the tragedy and feared ‘pilot error’ may have contributed to the disaster.
‘He was leaving the runway at more than 100 knots, you’re only going to experience death there,’ the aviation expert said.
‘If he landed at the beginning of the runway, he might have been able to slow down. But I fear he was coming in with too much speed and landed in the middle of the runway, that’s why he couldn’t slow down in time.
‘It’s a pretty common emergency that should have been dealt with. And the fact it wasn’t, probably comes down to the pilot.’
Jeju Air flight 7C2216 is engulfed in flames as it slams into a wall following a crash after landing at Muan International Airport
People stand as the wreckage of an aircraft lying on the ground after it went off the runway and crashed at Muan International Airport is pictured, in Muan, South Korea, December 30
An unverified video grab reportedly of the Jeju Air plane shows a burst of fire coming out of the jet’s right engine supposedly showing the moment the bird struck
And in a shocking twist of fate, a Canadian Airlines jet suffered a similar disaster later that day, in which a bird strike is believed to have damaged its landing gear controls.
It crash-landed, causing a wing to scrape along the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, Nova Scotia, Canada, before a fire broke out. Miraculously. none of the 80 people on board was seriously injured.
The accidents come amid a rise in the number of bird strike incidents, with some 19,400 collisions recorded in the USA by the Federal Aviation Administration last year compared to 17,200 in 2022.
And there were 1,400 bird strikes in the UK in 2022, only about 100 of which affected planes, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.
Fatal disasters due to bird strikes are rare – but not unheard of.
In October 1960, a flock of starlings caused a deadly plane crash in Boston Harbour after smashing into Eastern Airlines Flight 375 shortly after it took off from Logan International Airport.
The strike wreaked havoc on the plane, destroying one propeller engine and causing two others to momentarily lose thrust.
In just 20 seconds, the flight lost control and plunged into the water, killing 62 of the 72 people on board – in what was dubbed America’s worst bird strike disaster.
Black smoke emits from Jeju Air aircraft flight 7C2216 as it veers off the runway before crashing at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea
A similar incident was blamed for destruction of a $180million American surveillance plane which crashed in 1995, bursting into flames as it plowed into a forest moments after takeoff at Elmendorf Air Force Base, just north of Anchorage.
And in January 2009, New Yorkers watched in horror as a passenger jet crashed into the Hudson River after hitting a flock of Canadian geese seconds after take-off, destroying both engines.
Miraculously, pilots Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and co-captain Jeff Skiles, managed to safely land in the river, saving the lives of all 155 people on board.
Their close brush was death was later transformed into a Hollywood film starring Oscar-winner Tom Hanks as Captain Sully.
Air Vice Marshal Gary Waterfall, a former commander in the RAF, insisted that despite their being ‘oddities’ in the South Korean plane crash, such deadly occurrences are mercifully rare.
‘There are always in these “black swan” events like Captain Sulley crashing in the Hudson, for example,’ the former Red Arrows pilot said.
‘The probability of this happening is infinitely small, but it’s still a possibility – one that’s about as much as you or I winning the lottery, to be perfectly honest.
Captain ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and co-captain Jeff Skiles saved all 155 people on board Flight 1549 when both engines blew out after striking Canadian geese
Tuesday, January 15 marks 10 years since US Airways flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River after colliding with a flock of geese just after takeoff
Pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger managed to safely land his stricken jet in the Hudson River after a bird strike killed both its engines shortly after take off
‘Ultimately what we have seen over the last seven days is just incredibly bad luck and timing.’
Passenger jets undergo intense safety checks, with engines tested on their ability to withstand bird impacts.
Planes are designed to be able to take off with one engine, with normal operating procedure seeing pilots returning to an airport after reporting a bird strike.
Air Vice Marshal Gary Waterfall, said safety had improved vastly in the last 20 or 30 years, adding: ‘It is really rare. We have made it as safe as it possibly can be now. It’s such a rare event it inevitable it catches the news.
‘Crossing the road is far more dangerous than flying on an airline. I’d have no qualms about getting on an airplane tomorrow.’
Retired Squadron Leader Mr Davies agreed and said it it was ‘incredibly rare’ for aircrafts to suffer a ‘terminal impact’ after flying into a flock of birds.
He said strikes do have the potential to take out both engines and that there is a lot of kinetic energy which could lead to critical hydraulic systems being damaged.
Pictured are the remains of the plane in which all but two of the jet’s 181 people on board died
But he added: ‘Engines are designed to take bird strikes and still run or be shut down. It’s not a terminal thing.
‘It is incredibly rare for a double engine bird strike. But when it happens, you don’t just drop out of the sky, you can still glide.
‘I experienced bird strikes all the time. I would get them every three or four months. It was a non-event. The Tornado was a war plane, so things would bounce off them all the time.
‘I had a friend who hit a bird way over sea. He had to drop his fuel tanks and return home. But all pilots are trained in how to deal with bird strikes.
‘Yes, they can damage a jet – you’re doing 400-500 knots, so there’s a lot of kinetic energy in that, that can destroy and engine or damage hydraulics.’
In 2019 a Russian passenger plane was forced to make an emergency landing in a cornfield near Moscow after striking a flock of birds.
At least 74 people were hurt in the incident, which saw the jet land on its belly with its engines off and landing gear retracted.
The Ural Airlines Airbus 321 was travelling to Simferopol in Crimea when it hit the flock of gulls shortly after take-off, disrupting its engines.
State media has dubbed the landing the ‘miracle over Ramensk’.
And in 2010, a Ryanair jet carrying 166 passengers crash landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport after a ‘huge number’ of birds were sucked into its engines.
Two cabin crew and eight passengers were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the Boeing 737-800 slammed into the runway, sliding to a halt.
Ryanair claimed flight FR4102 from Frankfurt had suffered ‘multiple bird strikes’ in both engines as it approached Ciampino airport.