① Air Seoul Forced to Make Emergency Landing Due to Bird Strike
An Air Seoul flight, scheduled to fly from Gimpo Airport to Jeju Airport had to make an emergency return after a collision with birds during takeoff. The incident occurred on the 28th of last month, around 6 p.m., on Air Seoul flight RS907. Following the incident, the aircraft had to make an emergency return to Gimpo Airport. Air Seoul announced, “After landing safely, we are inspecting the aircraft,” and “We will deploy a replacement aircraft to transport the passengers.” The 199 passengers on board had to take a replacement flight or alter their journey, which was delayed by 4 hours and 40 minutes from the original schedule.
Following the incident, a video capturing the tense situation inside the aircraft, filmed by a passenger on board, was released. The aircraft quickly became chaotic due to the bird strike, and the flight attendants shouted at the passengers to “Bend down! Lower your posture!” Despite the tense situation, the flight attendants directed the passengers and handled the situation.
Although fear was evident in the voices of the flight attendants, they did their best to shout out instructions. When the plane landed safely, the passengers clapped and let out a sigh of relief, saying, “We made it.”
② Flight Attendants Receive Praise for Their Response
After the video was released, applause poured in for the flight attendants. Netizens responded with comments such as, “The flight attendants are human too; they must have been scared, but they were really great,” “My sister is a flight attendant, so it makes me nervous to see things like this,” and “The flight attendants must have been very scared and had complicated feelings, let’s praise them.”
According to Article 2 of the Aviation Law, cabin crew are defined as ‘crew members who perform safety duties such as evacuating passengers in emergencies on board the aircraft.’ The primary duty of the cabin crew is to ensure onboard safety, with service being an additional element.
Flight attendants undergo annual emergency evacuation training to evacuate passengers in the event of an accident safely. The training is divided into predictable and unpredictable evacuations based on assumed emergencies. By regulation, the volume of passenger control slogans in the event of an emergency must exceed 110 decibels (dB). If the voice of a new flight attendant does not exceed 110dB in the test after the training course, they must retake the test or be disqualified.
Cabin crew are tasked with appropriately controlling panicked passengers and smoothly performing their duties to ensure everyone can evacuate. Therefore, they must shout out short commands loudly. It is a principle that flight attendants give instructions in informal speech. This is by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
According to the cabin-related regulations in the ‘ICAO Document 10002 Cabin Crew Safety Training Manual (Doc 10002 CABIN CREW SAFETY TRAINING MANUAL),’ ‘Shout crash prevention commands. This may include the use of imperative.’ It is recommended that the flight attendant’s commands during emergency evacuation be loud, clear, repeated, and continuous. The ICAO’s regulations are international standards established for cabin safety, and 193 ICAO member countries, including our country, comply with the procedures.
③ Frequent Problem of Bird Strikes
The bird strike incident with Air Seoul has raised concerns about this issue. There were 21 bird strike incidents at Jeju Airport last year. There were 18 incidents in 2020 and another 18 in 2021. Most bird strikes at Jeju Airport occur during landing when the speed decreases. In many cases, birds hit the aircraft instead of being sucked into the engine, and pilots may not even notice. Many are discovered during aircraft inspections.
When an aircraft collides with birds at a speed of about 248 miles per hour during takeoff, it can experience a shock equivalent to about 5 tons. In severe cases, not only can the aircraft be damaged, but the pilot’s life can also be threatened. If a bird is sucked into the engine and causes damage, the lives of the passengers could also be at risk.
Bird strikes can lead to major accidents and are a severe problem worldwide. However, there is still no fundamental solution to prevent bird strikes. Airports form bird strike prevention teams and place them around the runway. Activities to drive away birds take place. To prevent bird strikes, shooters are placed to fire shots to move birds away before the aircraft takes off and lands. They also turn on speakers that play the sounds of predators. Recently, ‘robot hawks’ shaped like birds of prey have also appeared following drones. However, these measures alone cannot completely prevent bird strikes.
By. Kim Min Jae
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