Seven months after Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashed at Muan International Airport in South Korea, the cause of the accident is still being investigated.

The crash — the worst aviation disaster on Korean soil, with 179 dead — came shortly after the pilots reported a bird strike. Investigators are also looking into whether the pilots may have erred by shutting down the less- damaged engine after colliding with the birds.

But the high death toll may owe more to circumstances on the ground. After crashing on its belly without its landing gear deployed, the plane skidded along the runway and slammed into a concrete wall before bursting into flames.

“There is a cause for the accident and a separate cause for death,” said Lee Jun-hwa, an architect based in Seoul who lost his mother in the crash.

A New York Times investigation found that a series of design and construction choices led to the presence of the concrete hazard close to the runway. Government regulators ignored a safety warning, making a disastrous outcome of any collision more likely.

Reporters for The Times obtained blueprints and other design documents and asked five experts to review them. They also combed through documents issued by Korean authorities over the last 26 years.