Over Hundreds of Birds Moving... Witnesses Reveal
Experts "Some Dispersed from Large Flock, Suspected Collision"
A Jeju Air passenger plane involved in a collision and fire accident while landing on the runway at Jeonnam Muan International Airport is suspected to have experienced engine trouble after colliding with a flock of birds. Meanwhile, a massive flock of birds was captured moving over Muan County on the same day.
On the 4th, a photo titled “Flock of birds seen on the day of the accident” was posted on an online community. The poster, Mr. A, revealed that he is a resident of Muan County and added, “I was surprised when I saw it, so I took a picture.” The photo shows a flock of birds moving across the sky in a wave-like pattern, with hundreds of birds stretched out long enough to look like a black smoke.
Netizens who saw the photo reacted with comments such as “The flock of birds is bigger than the airplane,” “At this scale, an accident was inevitable,” “I would believe it if someone said it was a dragon,” and “I thought a flock meant about ten birds, but it wasn’t.”
Photo of a flock of birds taken on the day of the accident at Muan International Airport, Jeonnam [Image source=Online community]
Earlier, the passenger plane involved in the accident received a “bird activity caution” alert from the control tower at 8:57 a.m. on the 29th of last month. Two minutes later, the pilot called “Mayday” three times and reported a bird strike to the control tower. It is estimated that both engines experienced problems after the bird strike, and it is believed that not just one or two birds but a significant portion of the massive flock was sucked into the engines.
In relation to this, SBS reported on the 4th after enhancing and analyzing the quality of CCTV footage showing the situation at the time. According to the footage, a black cloud-like object presumed to be a flock of birds was captured around the passenger plane. Hwang Min-gu, director of the Legal Video Analysis Institute, told SBS, “It is unlikely to be clouds or smoke,” adding, “Because it can be seen flying freely while continuously changing shape, it is highly likely to be a flock of birds.”
Director Hwang further stated, “A few birds would not appear that black; the flock must be enormous to look like that.” He suggested, “Seeing a flock almost larger than the airplane, it is highly likely that some of the large flock scattered and moved toward the airplane,” raising the possibility that hundreds of birds headed toward the flight path of the airplane.
In fact, a citizen fishing near the beach close to Muan Airport on the day witnessed, “The passenger plane collided head-on with a flock of birds flying from the opposite direction while descending to land on the runway.” The citizen explained, “It sounded like 2 to 3 ‘pops’ as some birds seemed to be sucked into the engine, and flames were seen coming from the right engine.”
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