Audio from the Jeju Air flight that crashed in South Korea on Dec. 29, killing 179 people, reveals there were three different plans to land the plane after birds apparently flew into both engines. After reporting a bird strike and issuing a mayday call, the pilots told air traffic controllers they would turn left and approach Muan International Airport's sole runway from the south, reports the New York Times, which obtained a partial transcript of the communication. But within seconds, the pilots said they were unable to land and would turn right to make a second landing attempt from the south. From that direction, they would've faced no concrete embankment, per the Chosun Daily.
But that landing attempt also failed, at which point air traffic controllers asked the pilots if they wanted to approach the runway from the north. They agreed. Two minutes later, the plane hit the tarmac on its belly, its landing gear failing to deploy. It skidded past the end of the runway and hit a concrete barrier protecting navigation equipment, bursting into flames. Only two flight attendants at the back of the plane survived. The exchange between the pilots and air traffic controllers could be crucial in determining the cause of the crash as both of the plane's black boxes stopped recording about four minutes before impact.
The transcript, which hasn't been released publicly, was read out to victims' relatives by a representative of a board investigating the crash on Saturday, the Times reports. Portions of the conversation were excluded to protect the privacy of the participants, the rep said. More information came Monday via video footage from a hangar at the airport, recorded just over a minute after the mayday call. Sounds on the footage suggest the plane had partial engine function, contradicting the assumption of total engine and power failure, though evidence of migratory ducks was ultimately found in both engines, per the Korea JoongAng Daily. (More South Korea plane crash stories.)
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