Aviation experts are questioning why an antenna support structure made of concrete was built so close to the end of a runway at an airport in Muan, South Korea, where a Jeju Airlines plane crashed Sunday killing 179 people on board.
The Boeing 737 touched down without landing gear deployed after the pilots reported a bird strike. The plane sped past the end of the runway before smashing into the structure and bursting into a massive fireball.
The mound hit by the plane appears to be made of concrete and covered in dirt, holding up a common navigational antenna system used by pilots during landings.
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What's far less common is for any structure made of a rigid material like concrete to be so close to the end of any runway. International safety standards call for the use of components that easily break apart if struck by a plane.
"Meaning that in the event of a collision with an aircraft, they would break away very easily and would cause minimal damage," said Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation. "This is absolutely going to be a major focus."
Standards from the International Civil Aviation Organization show break-away construction should be used for anything built within 300 meters of the end of a runway.
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A measurement of the distance using Google Maps from the end of the runway in Muan to the concrete embankment shows a span of 147 meters, far short of the recommended safety clearance.
"It would seem that this particular construction would not likely meet the ICAO requirement," Shahidi said. "So the investigators will be looking at this particular construction."
Because the plane landed intact, the emergency most likely would have been survivable had the aircraft not hit the structure, Shahidi said.
