Airplane disaster in South Korea Bird DNA found on crashed plane
179 passengers died in the crash of a South Korean airplane at the end of December. Investigators have now published a preliminary investigation report.
27.01.2025, 06:20
27.01.2025, 06:36
dpa
According to an initial accident investigation report on the plane that crashed a month ago in Muan, South Korea, both engines show clear traces of a bird strike. According to the six-page document from the South Korean investigators, traces of DNA from hen ducks were found on the engines. The migratory bird is mainly found in Siberia, but winters in the south of the Korean peninsula, among other places.
According to the preliminary report, both the flight data recorder and the voice recorder in the cockpit stopped recording just over four minutes before the fatal collision. The exact reason for this is not yet known.
The deadliest accident in South Korean aviation history to date occurred at the end of December. A passenger plane of the South Korean low-cost airline Jeju Air coming from Thailand landed at Muan International Airport without its landing gear deployed, skidded across the runway and was completely destroyed by the hard impact against a wall. 179 of the 181 passengers lost their lives in the accident.
Engines are being dismantled
According to the investigators, the next phase of the investigation will involve dismantling the aircraft's engines and examining the individual components in detail.