Did bird strike contribute to South Korea plane crash? What we know so far

 Did bird strike contribute to South Korea plane crash? What we know so far

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More than 170 people died in the Jeju Air crash

More than 170 people have died after a plane crashed as it was landing in South Korea on Sunday morning.

The Jeju Air plane came off the runway before colliding with a wall at Muan International Airport in the south west of the country.

The plane, which was returning from Bangkok, in Thailand, was carrying 181 people - 179 of whom have died, while two crew members were rescued from the wreckage.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, which fire officials have indicated may have occurred due to a bird strike and bad weather. However experts have warned the crash could have been caused by a number of factors.

Was bird strike a factor in the crash?

A fire chief said the tail was identifiable but "one cannot recognise the shape of the rest of the plane"

The flight, 7C2216, was a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, Korea's most popular budget airline.

The plane arrived in Muan at about 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT).

A South Korean transport official said that the plane had been attempting to land but was forced to hold off after air traffic control gave a bird strike warning - an alert about the risk of a collision with birds.

About two minutes later, the pilot called in a Mayday and air traffic command gave permission for the plane to land from the opposite direction, the official said.

One video appears to show the plane touching down without using its wheels or any other landing gear. It skidded down the runway and crashed into a wall before erupting into flames.

A witness told the South Korean news agency Yonhap that they heard a "loud bang" followed by a "series of explosions".

Videos from the scene show the plane ablaze with smoke billowing into the sky. Fire crews have since extinguished the fire.

Lee Jeong-hyun, the chief of the Muan fire department, told a televised briefing that the tail section of the plane was identifiable but "one cannot recognise the shape of the rest of the plane".

He said that the bird strike and bad weather may have caused the crash - but that the exact cause is still being investigated. The flight and voice recorders from the plane have been recovered, though the Yonhap news agency reported that the former was damaged.

One passenger on the flight messaged a relative, saying that a bird "was stuck in the wing" and that the plane could not land, local media reported.

Officials, however, have not confirmed whether the plane did actually collide with any birds.

The head of Jeju Air's management said that the crash was not due to "any maintenance issues", Yonhap reported.

The South Korean transport department said that the head pilot on the flight had held the role since 2019 and had more than 6,800 hours of flight experience.

Geoffrey Thomas, an aviation expert and editor of Airline News, told the BBC that South Korea and its airlines were considered "industry best practice" and that both the aircraft and the airline have an "excellent safety record".

He added: "A lot of things about this tragedy don't make sense."

The crash is the deadliest in South Korean history

What is a bird strike?

A bird strike is a collision between a plane in flight and a bird. They are very common - in the UK, there were more than 1,400 bird strikes reported in 2022, only about 100 of which affected the plane, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.

The best known bird strike occurred in 2009, when an Airbus plane made an emergency landing on New York's Hudson River after colliding with a flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew survived.

Professor Doug Drury, who teaches aviation at CQUniversity Australia, wrote in an article for The Conversation this summer that Boeing planes have turbofan engines, which can be severely damaged in a bird strike.

He said that pilots are trained to be especially vigilant during the early morning or at sunset, when birds are most active.

But some aviation experts are sceptical about whether a bird strike could have caused the crash at Muan Airport.

"Typically they [bird strike] don't cause the loss of an airplane by themselves," Mr Thomas told Reuters.

Australian airline safety expert Geoffrey Dell also told the news agency: "I've never seen a bird strike prevent the landing gear from being extended."