[Vehicle] Deadly South Korean jet crash (Jeju Air Flight 2216)

[Jim Eshelman]

Dec 29, 2024, 9:03 AM KST (7 PM EST 12/28), Muan International Airport, South Korea (34N59'13" 126E22'58")
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_Air_Flight_2216

A plane crash-landed, skidding on the runway on its belly, striking an earthen embankment, and then bursting into flames. 179 of the 181 people aboard died. (Two flight attendants were pulled from the crash alive.) Though this won't make my top five deadliest plane crash examples, it will be close: It is also the deadliest aviation disaster since the 1998 Korean Airlines Flight 801 crash in Guam killed 228. (I don't have that in my collection, I'll have to look it up.)

The plane was a Boeing 737-800, an aircraft model rated as one of the safest in the world; and South Korean plane maintenance is "as good as it gets around the world" (Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline News, to CNN). But, while in his landing approach, the pilot broadcast a mayday at 8:57 AM (unknown reasons). Two minutes later, he attempted to lower the landing gear, which did not drop. The crash occurred between 9:03 and 9:07. (Reading between the lines, I think it struck at 9:03 AM, the same time multiple calls hit local emergency services, and the terrible landing drama unfolded over the next four minutes.)

Currently, nobody knows yet why landing gear didn't deploy. This plane had shown no issues or worrisome signs. Every news outlet I've seen is using words like "mystery" to describe the circumstances which, while probably used for sensationalism, do suggest possible Neptune involvement. ADDENDUM 12/30: The plane had successfully turned, as directed, to avoid a bird strike, but apparently still flew into one. The emergency mayday just before landing was about a bird strike.

The most obvious aspects at the time of the crash were a 0°25' Moon-Saturn square (closer than the Moon-Jupiter opposition, and involving Mercury) tied into the ongoing Mars-Pluto opposition (near the horizon) octile Mercury (Mercury-Pluto 0°10').

Year: Capsolar {+1 or +2}
Uranus Dsc 1°52'
Saturn more widely angular
-- Uranus sq middleground Mars 1°34'
Moon-Venus sq 0°42' M
Moon-Neptune co 1°49''

Bridge {+1 or +2}
t Pluto op Cansolar MC 0°41'

Quarter: Libsolar [+1]
[I give this +1 only because experience shows that Venus-Uranus is routine for ooh and ahh type explosions, no matter how tragic. For that reason it might even deserve +2, but this commonplace phenomenon is so different from what we normally expect from two benefics that I back off a little.]
Venus EP-a 0°47'
Uranus WP 1°43'
-- Venus-Uranus op 3°47'
Moon-Pluto sq 2°37'

Month: Caplunar {+1}
[This would be an easy +2 except for the tight Mercury-Jupiter aspect. This may refer to conditions we don't yet know about the cause.]
Mars MC 2°41'
Pluto widely foreground
-- Mercury-Jupiter op 0°08' p
-- Pluto opposite middleground Venus 3°09'
Moon-Venus co 1°15' M [sq Eris 0°15']

Week: Liblunar {+2}
Neptune N 1°54'
Sun widely foreground
-- Neptune sq middleground Mercury 2°13' M
[Moon-Eris sq 2°13' M]

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits {+2}
t Pluto op s MC 0°41'
-----------------------------
p Asc sq s Sun 1°27'

Day: Capsolar Quotidian {+2}
t Sun sq s Moon 0°33' [fire]
p EP-a op s Uranus 0°27'
p Asc op s Jupiter 1°58'

Day: Arisolar Quotidian & Transits {+1}
[This seems the chart that told the story, though the most important aspects weren't as close as we'd like. Nonetheless, the story is so interesting that I'll give a list of positions for the larger picture before I tabulate the exact hits. t Jupiter 18°27' Tau is too early to include.]
19°13' Aqu - t Saturn
19°38' Sco - t Moon
19°59' Aqu - s Saturn
21°03' Sco - t Mercury
21°34' Leo - s MC
22°28' Aqu - s Mars

t Mercury sq s MC 0°31'
t Moon sq s MC 1°56'
-- t Moon sq s Saturn 0°21'
-----------------------------------
p Moon-Mercury sq 0°33' [resembling the t Moon-Mercury &c. conj.]

Day: Libsolar Transits {+2}
[This also has an important Mars transit not previously caught.]
t Uranus sq s MC 1°01'
t Venus op s MC 0°15'
-- t Venus-Uranus sq 0°46'
t Mars co s Moon 0°35'