Jeju Air jet in deadly crash moving up to 374 kilometers per hour when it hit embankment: Analysis
Published: 12 Jan. 2026, 21:19
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- PAIK JI-HWAN
- [email protected]
![Firefighters conduct search operations at the wreckage site of the Jeju Air aircraft at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla, on Dec. 30, 2024. [EPA/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/01/12/04e3bae2-2a99-4d12-b2cd-edb311a179ee.jpg)
Firefighters conduct search operations at the wreckage site of the Jeju Air aircraft at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla, on Dec. 30, 2024. [EPA/YONHAP]
The Jeju Air passenger jet involved in a crash that killed 179 people was traveling at up to 374 kilometers per hour (232 miles per hour) before striking an embankment, a speed investigators say helps explain the extreme forces that proved fatal.
Rep. Jeong Jun-ho of the Democratic Party disclosed the data on Monday after receiving analysis materials from the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.
The crash occurred on Dec. 29, 2024, when the aircraft made a belly landing at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla and collided with an embankment near the runway. The accident killed 179 people, making it one of the deadliest aviation disasters in Korea’s history.
The new findings show the aircraft maintained a speed of about 374 kilometers per hour during the belly landing and as contact with the runway began. Investigators estimated the jet’s speed at roughly 280 kilometers per hour just before it hit the embankment and 232 kilometers per hour at the moment of impact.
Video footage reviewed during the investigation shows the aircraft collided with an embankment equipped with a localizer antenna about 30 seconds after the belly landing.
Based on the speed data, investigators estimated that passengers experienced forces at least 20 times the force of gravity at the moment of impact. Just before the collision, those forces likely rose to between 40 and 60 times the force of gravity.
Earlier, the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board asked the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea to analyze the localizer’s role in the crash. The simulations found that without the localizer, the aircraft would have slid along the runway after the belly landing and come to a stop, with no fatalities.
BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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