South Korea plane crash: Why was there a wall near the runway?

“The fuel is retained in the wing, so if the wing breaks, the likelihood of a fire is high.

“So without the wall, the outcome wouldn’t necessarily be completely different.”

Kingswood said he would be “surprised if the airport did not meet all the requirements of industry standards”.

He added: “I suspect that if we went around the airfields at many of the major international airports … we would find a lot of obstructions that could equally be accused of posing a hazard.”

However, John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems and a former pilot, said the runway design was “absolutely” inconsistent with industry best practice, which does not allow any hard structures within at least 300m (984ft) of the end of the runway.

Comments in the Muan International Airport operations manual uploaded in early 2024 after the accident revealed that the concrete embankment was too close to the end of the runway.

The document, prepared by Korea Airports Corporation, recommends reviewing the location of equipment during the planned expansion.

Kim Hong-rak, director general of South Korea’s airport policy, said the government will “review relevant regulations and their application.”

Aviation analyst Sally Gethin questioned whether the pilots were aware of the obstruction, especially given that the plane was approaching from the opposite direction of its usual landing approach.

She told BBC News: “We need to know, were (the pilots) aware that there was this hard border at the end?

“If the control tower instructed them to cancel use of the runway a second time, this should be confirmed in the black box investigation.

“I think there are a lot of questions.”