"Jeju Air Flight 2216 came in like a glider.." - B737-800 crash Muan airport South Korea

 

.. a shocking tragedy, 179 killed while on the ground. Most reports focusing on the 'concrete' ILS transponder 'wall' off the end of the runway, presumably because reporters know something about brick walls - they certainly know little about the B737. If I hear another Sky News reporter say that the 'landing gear' was not working....

There's only one logical explanation for that B737 to come in and attempt a 'crash' landing in the configuration that it did. The airliner came in like a glider and put down on its belly ..because it was glider. The landing gear on the B737 does not fail - it can be deployed manually by pulling on the three long cables behind the seats in the cockpit. The glider 'theory' obviously presumes that neither engine was developing full thrust; after all the B737 can operate reasonably comfortably on one engine and redundancy is such that one engine can power most nearly all of the systems. Coming in as a glider though immediately poses other problems, horribly evident on watching the video footage - the ground effect meant that the aircraft 'floated' along the runway ..and put down far too long. With the airliner flying like a glider, the landing gear and flaps could not be deployed - minimal drag configuration was perhaps the only way the crew could stand a chance of getting back to the runway.  The other possibility, as mentioned by Juan Brown on his Blancolerio channel - given the elapse of only 7 minutes from birds strike to touch-down - is that the crew didn't have time to run through any check list and failed to deploy the gear. That doesn't bear thinking about. And from what the commentator below says (Max Afterburner channel) in this 'NO-TIME' scenario, the crew didn't/wouldn't/couldn't run through their emergency check-list that includes gear down where a decision has to be taken immediately. I used to hate check-lists. Although they exist and you could consult them, in a real emergency you simply don't have the time to consult them - you need to know them! (all 100 pages of the emergency procedures section!) The crew fought to keep the machine airborne for as long as possible, that is the only explanation that fits what we have seen. With the tragic consequences we have all witnessed. A single click to view the video here..

Getty Images slide-show courtesy of Getty Images for non-commercial websites

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Fall of Assad's regime December 2024 - more pictures of the remnants of the Syrian Arab Air Force from Syria

 

More pictures from Syria from Getty Images using their 'slideshow' embed feature available for non-commercial web sites. First picture shows a Soviet 'Reys' drone

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No doubt a long derelict MiG 21 (note how faded the tailfin flag is) extracted from a brief  (1:04 min) Al Jazeera video from a wrecked al-Qusayr airbase..

SyAAF MiG 21bis in Qamishli AP - pic of the day #7

 

continuing the posts of Syrian Arab Air Force machines captured by insurgents during December 2024

SyAAF 2250 MiG-21bis in Qamishli AP

Assad regime falls December 2024 - recent pictures of the remnants of the Syrian Arab Air Force from Hama, Mezzeh, Al-Nayrab air bases

 

This blog last covered Hama air base in Syria via an RT news report back in 2017 here. The Syrian civil war seemed to have virtually ended between then and late November 2024, but outside of the large towns there were always areas of the country held by 'rebels' and effectively outside of Assad's control. But now, no doubt taking advantage of Russia's weakness and events elsewhere, Islamist  insurgents - what the Russians used to refer to as 'terrorists' and now call the 'armed opposition' - advanced on Homs taking Hama air base to threaten Damascus  in a rapid two-week offensive. Assad was forced to flee the country and claim asylum in Moscow. Russian influence in the region has suffered a huge setback - having invested huge resources in building up bases, especially the air force base at Latakia. Some recent photos of Hama air base have appeared on various on-line news feeds - along with several pictures of bombed-up MiG 21s that look like they may have been taken back in 2015-2017. Most of the wrecked MiGs in the recent pictures below look very much as though they were 'hangar 'queens' - propped up on piles of old tyres and missing key parts. The MiGs were delivered to Syria during the early 1980s - their airframes well past their useful lives were refurbished locally.

Syrian opposition fighters ride on a motorcycle past Syrian MiG 23s at the Al-Nayrab military airport after they took control of the facility in the outskirts of Aleppo, Dec. 2, 2024.

Below;  This SyAAF Gazelle (registration number 1313) was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Mezzeh Air Base on 9 December 2024. The air base was targeted in an Israeli campaign to neutralise the assets of the Syrian Armed Forces following the takeover of the country by the insurgents. This picture was probably taken the previous day following the capture of Damascus and the collapse of the Assad's regime, 8 December 2024. Identifier number (Arabic numerals): 1313
Tail Code / Serial Number: 1621

Also on this blog;

Syrian 'Fitters' in action around Aleppo, 2017

Below; Getty Images slideshow for non-commercial web sites. 

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2,000 hours at the controls of a Mirage IV - Cmdt François Dubreuil

Just posted on YT is this video on the Mirage IV. Starting his career in the Mystere, François Dubreuil, first flew the Mirage IV in 1975 and by the time of his last flight on the type in 1987 had accumulated nearly 2000 hours of flight time on the Mirage IV. Dubreuil knows this plane like the back of his hand and shares his 10 years of experience at the controls with us. Walking around the Mirage IV P number 11, François details its technical particularities - in-flight refueling, JATO takeoffs, the operation of the electric flight controls, the bombing profiles and the progress of a war mission....in the event that deterrence has failed.