--- title: "Experts Alarmed by Huge Wall at Airport That Jet Crashed Into, Killing 179 Passengers" description: "In South Korea, a jet crashed and burned when it hit a wall that was placed at the end of an airport runway, killing 179 people." date: "2024-12-31" modified: "2024-12-31" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/experts-alarmed-wall-jeju-air-crash" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "boeing" - "disasters" - "plane crash" - "the digest" --- # Experts Alarmed by Huge Wall at Airport That Jet Crashed Into, Killing 179 Passengers ![In South Korea, a jet crashed and burned when it hit a wall that was placed at the end of an airport runway, killing 179 people.]() *TOPSHOT - Firefighters and rescue personnel carry the body of a victim near the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on December 29, 2024. A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, leaving all but two feared dead. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP) (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images) \Image: JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images\* ## Localizer Tragedy In South Korea, a jet quite literally crashed and burned when it hit a wall that was placed at the end of an airport runway, killing 179 passengers. As the [*BBC* reports](), the pilot of the Jeju Air plane reported to the control tower at Muan International Airport that the Boeing 787-800 jet had struck a bird and needed to make an emergency landing. Despite failing to deploy its wheels and other gear, the emergency landing was looking okay — until the plane crashed into the concrete structure atop a dirt embankment at the end of the runway. That wall held a navigational system called a localizer that's meant, ironically, to help planes land safely. While localizer structures are common at airports, they're generally not supposed to be placed at the end of runways like the one at Muan, experts told the *BBC*. Air safety specialist David Learmont told the broadcaster that if the "obstruction," as he called the localizer structure, hadn't been positioned in such an inopportune place at the end of the runway, the jet "would have come to rest with most — possibly all — those on board still alive." Christian Beckert, a Lufthansa pilot out of Germany, was even more blunt: "Normally, on an airport with a runway at the end, you don't have a wall." ## Hard and Fast Beyond the positioning of the structure itself, longtime pilot Chris Kingswood told the *BBC* that there was something else strange about the wall: that it was just so hard. "Obstacles within a certain range and distance of the runway are required to be frangible," the veteran pilot said, "which means that if an aircraft strikes them that they do break." "It does seem unusual that it's such a rigid thing," he continued. "The aircraft, from what I understand, was travelling very fast, landed a long way down the runway, so it will have gone a long way past the end of the runway." In the wake of the stunning crash, which is one of the world's worst in recent years, [reports emerged]() that Muan officials had previously flagged that the wall was indeed too close to the runway. Instead of changing it immediately, however, the embankment was to be "reviewed" upon a planned expansion. **More on planes:** [*Dimwit Americans Are Looking at the Night Sky and Mistaking Stars and Airplanes for "Drones"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()