Investigators have found that the pilots of Jeju Air Flight 2216 may have made a grave mistake before they crash-landed at Muan International Airport on December 29, killing 179 of 181 people. Evidence suggests that the pilots shut down the wrong engine when a flock of migratory ducks flew into and damaged the aircraft. The plane continued to operate with the most damaged engine, which then caught fire. A source told The New York Times that the engine shutdown may have caused the loss of electrical power, which prevented the release of the landing gear. The aircraft skidded across the tarmac and crashed into a concrete wall before bursting into flames. However, investigators say that it is too early to draw conclusive results and that they are still missing information. It remains unclear whether the backup generator was functioning or why the pilots did not manually deploy the plane’s landing gear. It is also possible that the pilots had no way to determine which engine to shut down if their displays lost power before the engine stopped working, aviation safety expert Joe Jacobsen told the Times. After families of the victims disrupted a news conference, aviation officials decided to publicly release their findings.
