Aviation experts question purpose of concrete wall at end of runway after catastrophic Jeju Air crash: ‘Verging on criminal’

NY Post ^ | 12/30/24 | Jared Downing

[Libloather]

Aviation experts are raising serious questions about a curious concrete wall near the end of an airport runway in South Korea — after a catastrophic crash killed 179 people on board a Jeju Air flight on Sunday.

The Boeing 737 jet erupted in a fireball — killing all but two people on board Flight 7C2216 — after it skidded off the end of the runway at Muan International Airport and slammed into the structure.

Air safety specialists are now questioning why it was there at all.

David Learmount, a former pilot and flying instructor for the UK’s Royal Air Force, said he had “never seen anything like this.”

“Not only is there no justification [for it to be there], I think it’s verging on criminal to have it there,” Learmount, who is now operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine, told Sky News.

“To have a hard object about 200 meters [about 660ft] or less into the overrun, I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere ever before,” he added. The structure was located about 820ft off the end of the runway.

**SNIP**

Ju Jong-wan, director of the Aviation Policy Division at South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, explained to the New York Times that the structure was built to install the so-called localizer antenna, which helps enable the pilot to maintain the correct approach path.

He insisted that it was built according to regulations and that similar walls were found in other airports in South Korea.

However, Hwang Ho-won, chairman of the Korea Association for Aviation Security, told the outlet that if the antenna had been made of a different material, the tragedy might have been avoided.

[eccentric]

This reminds me of the old movie “Fate is the Hunter.”

[dangus]

Looks like Musk built an airport!