Jeju Air crash victims could have all survived without concrete barrier

A South Korean government-commissioned report found the Jeju Air plane crash in December 2024 that killed 179 people might not have been deadly if there had not been a concrete mound at the end of the runway, an opposition lawmaker said.



The Boeing 737-800 coming from Bangkok belly-landed and overran the runway at Muan International Airport, killing almost everyone on board after it struck a concrete support for a localiser antenna. The only survivors were two flight attendants at the far rear of the plane.



A simulation contained in the report commissioned by the government-led Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board indicated that all on board might have survived without the concrete structure, which did not meet international safety standards, Kim Eun-hye, a member of a bipartisan parliamentary special committee on the accident, said in a press release issued on Thursday.



The simulation by a South Korean structural engineering institute found the aircraft's initial impact as it hit the runway was not strong enough to cause severe injuries and the plane would have slid about 770 m before stopping if the barrier was not there, her press release said.



It also concluded that if the navigation facility had been supported by a breakable structure, instead of a concrete mound, the aircraft could have breached a fence with only minor injuries, according to the release.