Experts are also unsure what caused the deadliest air disaster in South Korea's history. A video of the accident, which claimed at least 179 lives, shows the Boeing 737-800 sliding down the runway without landing gear, crashing into a wall, exploding in a giant fireball and bursting into flames.
"Why didn't the firefighters spray foam on the runway? Why were they not present when the plane landed? And why did the plane land so close to the end of the runway? And why was there a brick wall at the end of the runway?" - Airline News editor Geoffrey Thomas, analysing the footage, was puzzled.
Officials confirmed that the airport had issued an alert for a flock of birds less than a minute before the accident, The Korea Herald reported. Primary investigations have also pointed to this as the cause of the disaster.
"A collision with a bird is not an unusual occurrence, and problems with the landing gear are not unusual. Bird collisions are much more common, but typically they are not in themselves the cause of the loss of an aircraft," Thomas was quoted as saying by MTI. Australian aviation safety expert Geoffrey Dell also said, "I have never seen a bird impact prevent the landing gear from deploying.
