One of the causes of the explosion and fire accident involving a Jeju Air airplane at Muan International Airport on the 29th is the phenomenon known as ''bird strike'' where birds collide with the body or engine of an airplane during takeoff, landing, or flight.
It is known that even a mallard weighing just 900g can exert an impact of up to 4.8 tons on an airplane ascending at a speed of 370 km/h.
In particular, if birds are sucked into an airplane engine, it can cause the engine to catch fire or explode. In Korea, the possibility of collisions with migratory birds is higher due to the proximity of many airports to rivers and coastlines.
Analysis data has shown that Muan International Airport has the highest bird strike rate among the 14 airports in Korea relative to the total number of airplane operations.
According to data submitted by the Korea Airports Corporation to lawmaker Lee Yeon-hee of the Democratic Party, there were a total of 10 bird strike incidents at Muan Airport from 2019 until August of this year. Considering that 11,004 flights operated at Muan Airport during this period, the estimated occurrence rate is 0.09%.
Although the absolute number of collisions is extremely low, making it difficult to generalize into meaningful statistics, it is true that the collision rate at Muan Airport is significantly higher than that of other major airports such as Gimpo (0.018%) or Jeju (0.013%).
The total number of bird strike incidents across all airports has steadily increased: 108 in 2019, 76 in 2020, 109 in 2021, 131 in 2022, and 152 in 2023. This is attributed to climate change causing migratory birds to become resident birds, as well as changes in their appearance timing and species.
In January, bird strikes occurred during airplane takeoffs and landings at Cheongju Airport and Incheon Airport. At Incheon, on Feb. 6, a bird flew into the engine and landing gear of an airplane that had just taken off and risen 17 feet (about 5.2 meters). On June 24, a bird collided with the front of an airplane running on the runway for takeoff, causing the airplane to return to the airport.
Airports are also striving to prevent bird strikes. They have contracted specialized services to deploy dedicated personnel and manage bird habitats, utilizing various deterrent devices such as guns, loud alarms, and sonic repellers. However, preventing accidents 100% is impossible. Recently, there have been studies on using radar detection and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to track bird migration paths through big data.
The Air Force operates bird deterrent teams, known as the 'BAT' (Bird Alert Team), at flying control units at each base nationwide.