The disaster involving Jeju Air Flight 2216 was avoidable.
On the morning of December 29, under clear skies, a Boeing 737-800 made an emergency belly landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea. The aircraft overshot the runway, collided with a concrete structure, and erupted into flames. Of the 181 passengers and crew onboard, 179 lost their lives.
Runway excursions—incidents where aircraft overshoot or veer off the runway during landing or takeoff—have long been among the most frequent aviation accidents. However, most such events end without fatalities, partly because runway safety areas are designed to feature only frangible structures that break away easily on impact.
An analysis of over 500 runway excursion incidents revealed that only 41 resulted in fatalities. One of the deadliest prior incidents occurred in 2010 in India when a plane overran a runway and plunged into a gorge, killing 158 people. Yet, none matched the death toll from the Muan airport accident, based on data compiled by a leading aviation safety organization.
Typically, accidents involving collisions with breakable structures near runways have resulted in far fewer deaths.
The presence of a steel-reinforced concrete barrier so close to the runway underscores a persistent weakness in international aviation safety. While a United Nations agency provides recommendations to keep runway environments free of hazardous obstacles, enforcement and interpretation of these guidelines fall to national regulators and airport operators.
Investigations into regulatory practices across more than twenty countries reveal significant variation in how these international safety recommendations are applied and monitored.
