NEED TO KNOW
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The Jeju Air Boeing 737 crash at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Dec. 29, 2024, killed 179 people
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Fourteen families of the victims filed a lawsuit against Boeing on Oct, 14 of this year, alleging that a bird strike triggered mechanical failures that hampered the pilots’ efforts to land the plane safely
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Boeing did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment
Fourteen families of the victims from the Jeju Air Boeing 737 crash that killed 179 people in 2024 are suing Boeing, claiming mechanical defects prevented the pilots from landing the plane safely.
On Dec. 29, 2024, the aircraft carrying 175 passengers and six crew members was flying in from Bangkok when it “veered off the runway” after landing and “collided” with a concrete fence at South Korea’s Muan International Airport, South Korean news agency Yonhap and CNN previously reported.
Two people, a pair of flight attendants, were reportedly the only survivors and rescued with “mid to severe” injuries.
A complaint filed on Tuesday, Oct. 14, by the Seattle-based Hermann Law Group in Washington state on behalf of the 14 families, said that as the plane approached the runway, it experienced a bird strike that set off a “massive failure of nearly all of its antiquated electrical and hydraulic systems — designed in the 1960s — that were required to safely land the aircraft.”
“As a direct result of these multiple failures, the pilots found themselves robbed of critical systems required to land the aircraft safely,” the complaint later added. “The pilots struggled desperately to complete a go-around to make a belly-landing too fast and too far down the runway … Upon impact the aircraft exploded in [a] fiery ball killing 179 of the 181 onboard.”
Among the causes of actions cited in the complaint are negligence, breach of warranty and strict liability. The complaint alleged, among other things, that Boeing failed to provide a safe and effective Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS), and failed to properly train pilots to safely operate, observe and respond to the aircraft’s flight systems.
The complaint also alleged that the aircraft was “not reasonably safe as designed,” and that the company’s decisions in the design of the 737-800 were “not reasonably safe in responding to a birdstrike.”
The document further added that the families of the victims are seeking economic damages, although their amounts were not specified.
“Rather than admitting its fault in this tragic accident, Boeing resorts to its old, worn out ‘blame the pilots’ tactic,” Charles Herrmann, an attorney for the plaintiffs, per his firm’s news release. “These pilots make easy targets; they perished in the flames with the passengers. They cannot defend themselves. Bereaved Families deserve the truth. Met with evasion in Korea, these plaintiffs seek justice in U.S. courts where we can legally compel them to reveal the truth.”
Boeing did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. The company told The New York Times that it does not comment on litigation.
As The New York Times, Reuters and The U.K. Times reported in July, the plane’s pilots appeared to have made fatal errors during the emergency landing in the minutes following the bird strike. After months of investigation, evidence showed that pilots turned off the left engine, instead of the right, according to a report reviewed by Reuters.
The engine that was turned off was not as badly damaged by the birds, and shutting it down removed the engine’s main source of thrust, The New York Times reported. With less electrical power, the plane landed without its landing gear in position, causing the devastating eruption. Investigators found that there were no issues with either engine before the crash, according to the paper.
“If the pilots lost their displays after the bird strike, they may have had no clear indication of which engine was damaged,” aviation expert Joe Jacobsen told The New York Times.
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A spokesperson for Jeju Air said in a statement on July 23 that the airline “has been actively cooperating with the relevant authorities throughout the investigation process.”
“We remain fully committed to providing any additional support as needed and are currently awaiting the final results,” the spokesperson added.
Read the original article on People
