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Investigators found bird feathers and blood in both engines of the 737 that crashed in South Korea last month, according to new reports.
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Reuters, the respected news agency, said a “person familiar with the probe” made the claim after authorities previously revealed feathers were found in just one jet engine.
The Jeju 737-800 burst into flames on 29 December after skidding off the runway and crashing into a structure containing the instrument landing system, killing all but two onboard.
The aircraft was reportedly struck by birds on approach, but confusion remains over why the crew could not lower the landing gear or flaps, which would have slowed the narrow-body down.
Critics have also questioned why such a large structure was placed near the end of the runway, given the aircraft would likely have survived if it wasn’t there.
David Learmount, a former RAF instructor, for example, even described the placement as “verging on criminal”.
“Very little damage is being done to the aeroplane as it skids down the runway, goes off the end, then it comes to this object here [the wall],” he told the UK’s Sky News.
“He carried off as good a landing as he possibly could, and when he got to the end of the landing run, the aircraft was substantially undamaged, and there was no fire.
“And then the aircraft hit something really hard, burst into flames, and that’s what killed the people on board.”
It comes after Australian Aviation reported how South Korean authorities pledged to improve the wall-like structures and revealed they are also present at seven domestic airports, including Muan.
In total, 175 passengers were on board, including 173 South Koreans and two Thai nationals, alongside six crew. The two survivors were both identified as members of the crew who sat at the back of the aircraft and suffered severe but not immediately life-threatening injuries.
The news of the changes to the structures came days after South Korea’s Transport Ministry also revealed that the two black boxes recovered stopped recording four minutes before the impact.
“Plans are in place to investigate the cause of the data loss during the ongoing accident investigation,” the ministry said.
