Aviation experts have said airport authorities in South Korea should face serious questions over the concrete wall that a plane collided with killing 179 people.
Leading air safety expert David Learmount told Sky News the collision with the wall that supported a guidance system at the end of the runway was the “defining moment” of the disaster.
“Not only is there no justification [for it to be there], I think it’s verging on criminal to have it there,” he said.
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Witnesses reported seeing large numbers of birds around the runway shortly before the crash and the control tower had warned the pilot of the possibility of a bird strike. A minute later the plane sent out a mayday signal.
When the plane landed on its second attempt at 9.03am, its landing gear was not deployed.
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Mr Learmount believes the people on board had a good chance of survival once the pilot had got the plane on to the ground despite travelling at high speed.
“He [the pilot] has brought it down beautifully given the circumstances, they are going very fast but the plane is still intact as it slides along the ground,” he said.
As it reached the end of the airfield and struck the wall, the plane was almost instantly destroyed.
“That kind of structure should not be there,” he said.
“That is awful. That is unbelievably awful.”
Muan International Airport opened in 2007 and has become a busy regional hub in the south of the country. It is managed by the state-owned Korea Airports Corporation.
Satellite maps show the concrete structure has stood at the southern end of the runway close to the perimeter fence for many years.
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It holds the instrument landing system which helps pilots land at night or when visibility is poor.
At most airports these systems are placed on collapsible structures.
“To have a hard object about 200m or less into the overrun, I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere ever before,” Mr Learmount added.
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If the plane had not struck the wall he suggested it would have hit through a perimeter fence, travelled over a road and likely stopped in an adjacent field.
“There was plenty of space for the aircraft to have slowed down, come to a halt,” Mr Learmount said.
“And I think everybody would have been alive… the pilots might have suffered some damage going through the security fence or something like that. But I even suspect they might have survived.”
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Another aviation expert Sally Gethin said she shared concerns about the location of the wall but disagreed that everyone would have survived.
Ms Gethin said it “seemed to be maintaining speed, so even if there had been more space at the end of the runway it could have possibly ended up being catastrophic”.
The country’s deputy transport minister Joo Jong-wan said the runway’s 2,800m length was not a contributing factor in the crash – and maintained that walls at the ends were built to industry standards.
