GE Aerospace Participated in South Korea's Investigation into Boeing Jet Crash that Worsened Boeing's Crisis

 

GE Aerospace joined a joint investigation into South Korea's worst aviation accident because its joint venture built the engines for the Boeing $BA airplane that crashed in the accident.

 

The accident is that a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 was off the runway, landed without putting the landing gear down, exploded into flames after colliding with airport facilities, and killed 179 people. South Korea's Deputy Civil Aviation Minister Joo Jong-won told a news conference that the transportation ministry has decided to extend the deadline for inspections into the accident until January 10th.

 

The inspection was originally scheduled to end on Friday (January 3rd). However, the inspection was extended to investigate whether the airline carried out adequate mechanical maintenance after video images showed smoke appearing from the plane's right engine before it crashed.

 

The Transportation Ministry said it would inspect the engines, maintenance records, and landing gear of all 737-800s, with serious violations leading to the suspension of the airline's operations.

 

The plane's engines were manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran (EPA: SAF). That is why GE is involved in the investigation. The investigation team consists of Korean investigators, GE, Boeing, and U.S. representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

 

Although the cause of the disaster is unconfirmed, the incident could compound Boeing's struggle. Boeing has struggled to regain customer confidence after two fatal 737 MAX crashes, an airborne panel explosion, and a seven-week strike.

 

Unanswered questions include why the plane landed without its landing gear down and what caused the pilot to rush a second landing attempt after informing air traffic controllers that the plane had suffered a bird strike and declaring an emergency.

 

The South Korean investigative team said two of its members will travel to the US on Monday (Jan. 6) with the recovered flight data recorder to examine key data with the NTSB. The remaining investigators will finish transcribing the cockpit voice recordings from the crashed plane in the coming days and decide whether to make the recordings public afterward.