A VETERAN pilot said the South Korea airport where 179 people died in a plane crash never told them about the concrete wall.
Last month, a Boeing 737-800‘s landing gear failed to lower and the jet skidded across the runway, smashed into the wall, and exploded.
The wall, which was housed in a mound of dirt, sat some 250m past the end of the runway at Muan International Airport and held up a navigation sensor.
Horrific footage caught the plane’s final moments as it went off the runway into the mound.
Passengers were killed and their bodies were thrown around the airport and a nearby field while the plane was incinerated.
The unnamed pilot, with seven years experience flying into the airport, told Yonhap it never occurred to him it was made of concrete.
He said: “I’ve seen the mound from the air during countless take-offs and landings and assumed it was a dirt pile.
“There was no indication in the airport charts or separate guidance mentioning that the mound was a 2-metre-high, 4-metre-thick concrete structure.
“Other pilots were also unaware of its true nature.”
The air disaster left 179 people dead with only two surviving the terrifying crash as investigators continue to desperately search for answers.
Comments in the airport’s operating manual – uploaded early this year – said the embankment was too close to the end of the runway.
It recommended that the equipment location be reviewed during a planned expansion project at the airport, Reuters reports.
David Learmount of Flight International Magazine said if the wall wasn’t where it was then “everybody would be alive now”.
He told Sky: “I don’t know what standards they think were appropriate but other airports do not put the instrument landing system antennae in a concrete structure.
“What we saw in the video was the aircraft being put down beautifully – it was perfectly level.”
Captain Mike Vivien, an air safety and security consultant, also spoke on the wall’s presence at the airport.
He said: “A brick wall was not necessarily precluded by regulations but whether it was too strong is another matter.
“Why the wall was there is a possibility which will have to be looked at.”
The crash is now the worst air disaster on Korean soil ever after only two of the 181 on board survived.
They are reported to be a 33-year-old male cabin steward and a stewardess in her 20s who were both pulled from the tail of the plane.
Tragically, five of the dead were children aged under 10 years old – with most on the plane being in their 50s and 60s.
Questions are now being asked however over the initial version of events – that a “bird strike” somehow crippled the plane’s landing gear on approach to Muan.
How that caused the landing gear to fail is not yet clear.
The pilot issued a mayday call only one minute after receiving a warning about the birds from the control tower.
Footage caught a white plume of smoke erupt through the right engine.
Witnesses spoke about how they heard a bird get stuck in the motor as well as an explosion noise.
Low-cost carrier Jeju Air apologised with officials bowing in front of cameras and vowing to do all 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 apologise for causing concern.”
AT the end of the Muan International Airport’s runway was an antenna that sat on a concrete wall.
The antenna, known as a localizer, provided navigation data that assisted with landings to incoming flights.
Sitting about 4m high and covered in 2m of dirt, the mound sat about 250m behind the end of the runway.
The localizer had to sit on a mound as it had to sit perpendicular to the runway which was positioned on a slight decline.
Aviation expert David Learmount added that at most airports the structure is made out of metal that would collapse if it was struck by a plane.
The antenna support being made out of concrete could have severely worsened the disaster, he said.
The concrete wall was only erected last year when the 15-year-old localizer was replaced, Yonhap reports.
The earth mound was also only built then in order to level the ground while the infrastructure was reinforced.
