Harmful Comments in the Media

Whenever a high-profile accident occurs, a lot of ill-informed commentary appears in the media, including otherwise reliable news channels. In this article, I offer my thoughts on how to avoid the pitfalls associated with this harmful trend, following recent events in South Korea.

Background

On 29 December 2024, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crashed at Muan International Airport, following an emergency landing. According to the preliminary report issued by the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board of South Korea (ARAIB), the pilots declared an emergency after a bird strike during a go-around procedure. The aircraft attempted to land on runway 19 but performed a belly landing, overshot the runway limits, and collided with a concrete embankment, causing a fire and a partial explosion. The collision led to 179 fatalities and 2 serious injuries, making it the deadliest accident involving the 737 Next Generation family. ¹

Less than a month later (28 January 2025), a fire broke out in the aft cabin section of an Air Busan Airbus A321-200 while being pushed back for departure from Busan Airport. All 176 passengers and crew were successfully evacuated via emergency slides, resulting in 7 minor injuries. The fire was extinguished about 75 minutes later, but the fire consumed the crown skin area of the fuselage and the aircraft was destroyed. At the time of writing this post, the exact cause of the fire is unknown. Witness statements indicated that the fire has started in an overhead compartment. ²

Ill-informed comments in the media

Ever since the 2013 Asiana Boeing 777 accident at San Francisco International, Korean airlines have maintained a clean safety record. Prior to the above mentioned occurrence, Jeju Air was ranked amongst the safest low cost airlines around the world. Air Busan was never involved in a fatal accident. In addition, South Korea has an extensive domestic and international airline network, supported by qualified pilots and maintenance personnel who meet ICAO and IATA safety standards. Having worked with Korean operators in the past, I can confirm their overall committment to safety and a positive safety culture in general.

The rise of self-proclaimed experts in the aviation world is becoming alarmingly prevalent in today’s hyped up media environment. Unfortunately it was no different after the Muan and Busan accidents. These safety “experts” were quick to appear on our TV screens, radio broadcasts, and websites, making outlandish statements about local airlines, airport authorities, rescue and fire fighting capabilities, and the list goes on. Without naming names, we have a range of regular commentators in Australia who are woefully unprepared and unqualified for offering any professional observations about serious safety incidents. Some of the commentary is not only bizarre, it can be best described as borderline xenophobic.

How to avoid similar pitfalls

Let me share my thoughts on how to react to serious incidents and accidents in a calm and professional manner:

1. Establish the facts. Always rely on trusted media sources and safety data that are quality assured.

2. Do not trust video and image feeds, unless you can be reasonably certain that the source is reliable and the images are not digitally altered.

3. Treat initial press releases by airline and government officials with caution. Their immediate response serves PR objectives, not safety ones.

4. Disregard any commentary by self-proclaimed airline safety “experts” about the causes of the accident. Real experts do not second-guess what caused an accident while the wreckage is still on the runway.

5. Do not buy the cover story. This is especially true when hearing/reading ill-informed judgements about deceased pilots. They cannot defend themselves.