The Jeju Air jet appears to have lost power on at least one engine and suffered a hydraulic failure following a reported bird strike, airline pilots said in initial reactions.
The partial breakdown apparently forced the pilots to turn and land quickly with undercarriage and wing flaps retracted, analysis suggests.
Images and data leading up to the crash raise puzzling questions about the airliner’s configuration as it touched down on runway 19 at Muan airport, which runs north-south, before colliding with the concrete-reinforced array of antennae for the instrument landing system.
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The Boeing 737-800 jet was making a normal approach with flaps extended. It was close to landing in the opposite direction,