Robert A. Clifford, Founder and Senior Partner of Clifford Law Offices and Lead Counsel in the civil litigation pending in federal district court in Chicago on behalf of the victims of the Boeing 737 MAX8 crash in 2019 in Ethiopia, commented on the Sunday, December 29 crash of a Boeing 737-800 in South Korea that reportedly killed nearly all 181 people on board.
Initial speculation was that a bird strike occurred, but observers at the scene are reporting that the landing gear did not deploy causing the aircraft to skid down the runway in flames before hitting a concrete barrier and exploding into a fireball.
“A bird strike is unlikely to have interfered with the deployment of the landing gear. This plane appears to have experienced a mechanical problem and in what appears to be a very reckless move. The pilot was authorized to attempt a landing without an operational landing gear, needlessly exposing all aboard to great danger that ended in this fiery crash,” Clifford said. “Evaluation of the digital flight data and cockpit recorders is essential to knowing exactly what occurred. Declarative statements about what exactly occurred are premature until the investigators are able to fully evaluate the data from the recorders.”
The latest reports from South Korea’s director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ju Jong-wan, told reporters that the black box records from the aircraft have been recovered and will be examined to try to determine the cause of the tragedy.
The passenger plane reportedly was operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air and had taken off from Bangkok, Thailand, and was landing at Muan international Airport in southwestern South Korea Sunday around 9 a.m. local time.
The Boeing 737-800 is the precursor to the 737 MAX that was involved in two fatal accidents more than five years ago that killed all 346 on board. That second crash led to a global grounding of the MAX fleet for nearly two years. Clifford is Lead Counsel in the litigation of the Boeing 737 MAX8 that crashed in March 2019 killing all 157 on board after takeoff in Ethiopia. Several of those cases are set for trial in 2025.
For further information or to speak to an aviation attorney, contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell) pammenaker@cliffordlaw.com.