There Is Bulu In The Air Engine, South Korean Authority Confirms Bird Collision Before The Jeju Air Accident

The location of the Jeju Air plane crash is at Muan International Airport. (Wikimedia Commons/to nature)

JAKARTA - The South Korean authorities have officially confirmed that there was a collision with a bird in the Jeju Air plane crash.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft belonging to Jeju Air airline with flight number 7C2216 and registration of HL8088 from Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand had a fatal accident while landing at Muan International Airport, South Korea on December 29.

The plane carrying 175 passengers and six crew members on the flight turned into fireball after making an emergency landing and hitting the concrete structure. Only two crew members survived the incident.

According to the Aviation and Train Accident Investigation Agency, fur was found in one of the aircraft engines. However, whether the two machines were damaged during the accident is still under investigation.

"One machine clearly shows evidence of a bird collision. However, we need to investigate further to determine whether the two machines were affected or whether other machines suffered less severe damage," said Lee Seung-yeol, head of the accident investigation agency.

"Even if a bird collision is severe, it doesn't immediately cause the engine to shut down," he added.

As evidence of bird collisions, Lee said, "During the process of dismantling the soil from the engine, we found several strands of fur."

He said the investigation would examine the inside of the machine to identify bird species and determine how the bird got into the machine.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the accident is expected to take quite some time. On January 7, the investigative body has begun working with the US National Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB) to retrieve data from flight data recorders (FDR).

On Monday, two investigators from South Korea will depart for the United States with flight data recorders to be analyzed by the NTSB.

The flight data recorder, along with the cockpit voice recorder, are two black boxes containing important information about the crash.

Earlier, investigators on Saturday collected a full transcript of a cockpit voice recorder found from the ruins of Jeju Air. It is not yet clear whether they will reveal the transcript.