Air disaster in South Korea. Investigators will focus on two probable causes.

After the largest air disaster in South Korea, investigators will focus on the bird strike incident and a landing gear failure. During the explosion, the aircraft was almost completely destroyed, but it provided valuable data for the investigation, including two flight recorders. One of them is damaged and will take longer to read.

The investigators have footage of the aircraft during landing when one of the engines caught fire, as well as video of the plane sliding down the runway at high speed.

The South Korean authorities will conduct a special inspection of 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated in the country. This inspection is necessary not only due to the air disaster but also because of a landing gear issue that occurred on another aircraft of the same series.

Investigators will also look into whether the aircraft crew followed safety instructions, how the airport protected itself from bird strikes, whether the aircraft's power system was turned off before the disaster, and the operation of the locator that controls landing.

Currently, the direct causes of the crash are unknown. Bird strikes usually do not lead to such consequences, as the aircraft can operate on one engine. It is also unclear why the landing gear did not deploy.

The pilot, who was considered experienced (7,000 flight hours), issued an emergency call after the controller's warning and attempted a second landing, which ended in disaster. Checking the length of the runway is not mandatory, as it is an unlikely cause.

As a reminder, the passenger aircraft Jeju Air crashed during landing at Muan Airport in southwestern South Korea. The aircraft went off the runway and crashed into a fence, after which it caught fire.

The air disaster occurred at 9:07 AM local Time (3:30 AM Kyiv time). The aircraft, which was flying from Bangkok and had 175 passengers and six crew members on board, crashed during landing at Muan Airport, located in South Jeolla Province, 288 kilometers from Seoul.

It is now known that 179 people died, while two others were rescued.