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SEOUL: A Jeju Air plane that crashed in December during an emergency landing after a bird strike could have kept flying on the damaged engine that was still working after pilots shut down the other one, according to an update from South Korean investigators.

The Boeing 737-800 instead belly-landed at Muan airport without its landing gear down, overshot the runway and erupted into a fireball after slamming into an embankment, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.

Investigators have not yet produced a final report into the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil, but information about the plane’s two engines has begun to emerge.

According to a July 19 update prepared by investigators and seen by Reuters but not publicly released following complaints from victims’ family members, the left engine sustained less damage than the right following a bird strike, but the left engine was shut down 19 seconds after the bird strike.

The right engine experienced a “surge” and emitted flames and black smoke, but investigators said it “was confirmed to be generating output sufficient for flight,” in the five-page update, which included post-crash photos of both engines.

No reason for the crew’s actions was given and the probe is expected to last months as investigators reconstruct the plane’s technical state and the picture understood by its pilots.

Experts say most air accidents are caused by multiple factors and caution against putting too much weight on incomplete evidence.

More questions

So far, public attention has focused on the possibility that the crew may have shut down the less-damaged engine, rekindling memories of a 1989 Boeing 737-400 crash in Kegworth, England, where pilots shut down a non-damaged engine by mistake.

The disaster led to multiple changes in regulations including improvements in crew communication and emergency procedures.

A source told Reuters on Monday that the South Korea-led probe had “clear evidence” that pilots had shut off the less-damaged left engine after the bird strike, citing the cockpit voice recorder, computer data and a switch found in the wreckage.

But the latest update on the crash also raises the possibility that even the more heavily damaged engine that was still running could have kept the plane aloft for longer.

It did not say what level of performance the operating engine still had, nor what extra options that might have given to the plane’s emergency-focused crew before the jet doubled back and landed in the opposite direction of the runway from its initial plan with its landing gear up.

Both engines contained bird strike damage and both experienced engine vibrations after the strike. The right engine showed significant internal damage, the Korean-language update from South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) said, but it did not describe the damage found in the left engine.

The update did not say how the left engine was operating nor the state of systems connected to either engine, said former US National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith when shown the document translated by Reuters.

It contains some new facts but omits far more, resulting in a “cryptic” document, he said.

ARAIB, which plans to issue a final report next June, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Safety experts say it is common for early reports to contain sparse facts and limited analysis while investigations continue.

A preliminary report released in January said feathers and blood stains from ducks were found in both engines.

The engines – made by CFM International, jointly owned by GE and France’s Safran – were examined in May and no defects or fault data were found beyond the bird and crash damage, the report said.

Families of those who died in the disaster were briefed on the engine findings but asked investigators not to release the July 19 report, saying that it appeared to apportion blame to the pilots without exploring other factors.

The report was withheld but Reuters and South Korean media obtained copies. Boeing and GE referred questions about the crash to ARAIB. Safran did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jeju Air has previously said it is cooperating with ARAIB and is awaiting publication of the investigation.

Under global aviation rules, civil air investigations aim to discover crash causes without assigning blame or liability.

The Jeju Air pilots’ union said ARAIB was “misleading the public” by suggesting there was no problem with the left engine given that bird remains were found in both.

A source who attended the briefing told Reuters that investigators told family members the left engine also experienced a disruptive “surge,” citing black box data.

The pilot union and representatives of bereaved families have asked that evidence be released to support any findings.

Relatives say the investigation also needs to focus on the embankment containing navigation equipment, which safety experts have said likely contributed to the high death toll.

Global aviation standards call for any navigation equipment in line with runways to be installed on structures that easily give way in case of impact with an aircraft.

South Korea’s transport ministry has identified seven domestic airports, including Muan, with structures made of concrete or steel, rather than materials that break apart on impact and has said it will improve them.

Designs for the new structures are in progress, a ministry official said last week.

VENTURA, California: Lisa Tate, whose family has been farming in Ventura County since 1876, cannot recall a threat to crops like the one emanating from Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant onslaught.
Tate fears that the crackdown on illegal workers, far from addressing the problems of this vital agricultural region north of Los Angeles, could “dismantle the whole economy” and put the country’s food security at risk.
“I began to get really concerned when we saw a group of border control agents come up to the Central Valley and just start going onto farms and just kind of trying to chase people down, evading the property owner,” the 46-year-old farmer, who grows avocados, citrus and coffee, told AFP in an interview.
“That’s not something we’re used to happening in agriculture,” she added.
The impact goes beyond harvesters, she said. “There’s a whole food chain involved,” from field workers to truck drivers to people working in packing houses and in sales.
“It’s just, everybody’s scared,” she said — even a multi-generational American like her.
“I’m nervous and I’m scared, because we’re feeling like we’re being attacked.”
Other farmers contacted by AFP declined to speak to the media, saying they feared potential reprisals from the Trump administration.

Perennial labor shortage
The agricultural sector has for years been trying to find permanent solutions for its perennial labor shortages, beyond issuing temporary permits for migrant workers.
“Some of the work we have is seasonal. But really, around here, we need workers that are year-round,” Tate says.
The number of government certified positions for temporary agricultural workers practically tripled between 2014 and 2024, Department of Labor statistics show, underlining just how much American agriculture depends on foreign workers.
On top of that, some 42 percent of farm workers are not authorized to work in the United States, according to a 2022 study by the Department of Agriculture.
Those numbers line up with the struggles many farmers go through to find labor.
They say US citizens are not interested in the physically demanding work, with its long days under extreme temperatures, rain and sun.
Against that backdrop, Tate warns that removing people who are actually doing the work will cause immeasurable damage.
Not only will it harm farms and ranches, which could take years to recover, it will also send food prices soaring, and even endanger US food security, possibly requiring the country to start importing provisions that may previously have been grown at home, she says.
“What we really need is some legislation that has the type of program that we need, and that works for both the workers, that ensures their safety, it ensures a fair playing field when it comes to international trade, as well as as domestic needs,” Tate said.

‘Between a rock and a hard place'
Some farmworkers agreed to speak to AFP on condition of not being fully identified, for fear of being arrested.
“All we do is work,” a worker named Silvia told AFP. She saw several friends arrested in a raid in in Oxnard, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Ventura.
The 32-year-old Mexican lives in constant fear that she will be the next one picked up and, in the end, separated from her two US-born daughters.
“We’re between a rock and a hard place. If we don’t work, how will we pay our bills? And if we go out, we run the risk of running into them,” she said, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“The way the goverment is working right now, everybody loses,” said Miguel, who has been working in the fields of southern California for three decades.
The 54-year-old said that workers are losing jobs, farm owners are losing their labor, and as a result, the United States is losing its food.
Miguel has worked in various different agriculture sector jobs, including during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of them were “very hard jobs,” he said.
Now he feels like he has a target on his back.
“They should do a little research so they understand. The food they eat comes from the fields, right?” he said.
“So it would be good if they were more aware, and gave us an opportunity to contribute positively, and not send us into hiding.”