A VETERAN pilot said the South Korean airport, where 179 people died in a plane crash, never told them about the concrete wall.
Last month, a Boeing 737-800 landing gear he couldn’t get off and the jet skidded down the track, crashed into the wall and exploded.
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The wall, which was located on a mound of earth, was about 250 meters beyond the end of the runway at Muan International Airport and held a navigation sensor.
Horrific images captured the plane’s final moments as it skidded off the runway toward the mound.
The passengers were killed and their bodies were dumped across the airport and a nearby field while the plane was burned.
The anonymous pilot, with seven years of experience flying at the airport, told Yonhap that it never occurred to him that it was made of concrete.
He said: “I have seen the mound from the air during countless takeoffs and landings and assumed it was a pile of dirt.
“There was no indication on the airport maps or in any separate guidebook that mentioned that the mound was a concrete structure 2 meters high and 4 meters thick.
“Other pilots were also unaware of its true nature.”
Air disaster left 179 people dead and only two survived terrifying crash as investigators continue desperately search for answers.
Comments in the airport’s operating handbook, uploaded earlier this year, said the embankment was too close to the end of the runway.
It recommended that the location of the equipment be reviewed during a planned expansion project at the airport, Reuters information.
Terrifying footage shows a doomed plane crashing into a concrete wall before bursting into flames, killing 179 people on board.
David Learmount of Flight Worldwide magazine said that if the wall wasn’t where it was, “everyone would be alive now.”
he said Darling: “I don’t know what standards you think are appropriate, but other airports do not place instrument landing system antennas on a concrete structure.
“What we saw in the video was the plane landing beautifully: it was perfectly level.”
Captain Mike Vivien, an aviation security consultant, also spoke about the presence of the wall at the airport.
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He said: “The regulations did not necessarily prohibit a brick wall, but whether it was too strong is another question.
“The reason the wall existed is a possibility that will have to be analyzed.”
The crash is now the worst air disaster to occur on Korean soil after only two of the 181 on board survived.
It is reported that they are a 33-year-old cabin steward and a flight attendant in their 20s who were taken from the tail of the plane.
Tragically, five of the dead were children under the age of 10, and most of those on the plane were between 50 and 60 years old.
However, questions are now being raised about the initial version of events: that a “bird strike” somehow paralyzed the plane’s landing gear on the approach to Muan.
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It is still unclear how that caused the landing gear to fail.
The pilot issued a distress call just one minute after receiving a warning about the birds from the control tower.
The images captured a plume of white smoke billowing from the right engine.
Witnesses said they heard a bird stuck in the engine and the sound of an explosion.
Low-cost airline Jeju Air apologized and officials bowed in front of cameras and promised to do everything they could to help.
The airline said in a statement: “We at Jeju Air will do everything in our power in response to this accident.
“We sincerely apologize for causing concern.”
Why was there a concrete wall at the end of the track?
At the end of the runway at Muan International Airport there was an antenna perched on a concrete wall.
The antenna, known as a localizer, provided navigation data that assisted in the landings of incoming flights.
About 4 m high and covered by 2 m of earth, the mound was about 250 m behind the end of the runway.
The locator had to sit on a mound, as it had to be perpendicular to the runway, which was located on a slight slope.
Aviation expert David Learmount added that in most airports the structure is made of steel that would collapse if hit by a plane.
The antenna support made of concrete could have seriously worsened the disaster, he said.
The concrete wall went up last year, when the 15-year-old locator was replaced, Yonhap reports.
The earthen mound was also built then to level the terrain while reinforcing the infrastructure.
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