The country ramped up investigations into the cause of its deadliest domestic air accident as police scrambled to identify victims, while families of those killed in this week’s crash of a Jeju Air jet pushed for more details.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew were killed when the Boeing 737-800 belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway at Muan International Airport on Sunday, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into an embankment holding navigation equipment.
But remarks in the airport’s operating manual, uploaded early in 2024, said the embankment was too close to the end of the runway and recommended that the location of the equipment be reviewed during a planned expansion.
A transport ministry official said authorities would need to check the document before replying to questions, however.
On Monday, South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation.
At Muan airport, investigators combed over the wrecked fuselage and soldiers picked carefully through the fields around the airport yesterday, as people left ritual offerings for victims – including food and letters – near the airport’s perimeter.
“Captain, first officer, and crew members, thank you so much for doing your best to save the passengers. I pray for your eternal rest,” one letter left on the fence said.
Inside the airport, where victims’ relatives have been camped out since Sunday, waiting for information, anger was growing over delays in identifying passengers on the doomed plane.
But officials said they had begun releasing the first bodies to relatives, even as work to identify all victims continued.
“Of the 179 victims, the bodies of four have completed the handover procedures to their bereaved families for funerals,” transport minister Park Sang-woo said yesterday.
“For 28 victims, whose identities have been confirmed and autopsies completed, we will allow funeral procedures to begin from 2pm today with the consent of their families,” he added.
One family lost nine members – including the oldest passenger on the plane, who was taking his first-ever overseas trip to celebrate his birthday, local broadcaster KBC reported.
The passenger, surnamed Bae, was travelling with his wife, his two daughters, one son-in-law, and four grandchildren, including a five-year-old.
The entire family was killed, with only one of the daughter’s husband – who was not able to join the trip – left behind to face the loss of his wife and three children.
“Yesterday, the village chief went to Muan Airport and said the son-in-law was in utter despair, saying, ‘I should have gone with them and died with them,’” KBC said.
Memorial altars for the victims have been set up nationwide, including in Seoul.
A “black box” flight data recorder recovered from the crash site was missing a key connector and authorities were reviewing how to extract its data, but retrieval of data from the cockpit voice recorder has begun, the transport ministry told briefings.
Inspections of all 101 B737-800s operated by South Korean airlines were set to wrap up by Jan 3, though the airport would stay closed until Jan 7, it added in a statement.
Representatives of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Aviation Administration, and aircraft maker Boeing have joined the investigations.
Crash investigators are considering possible factors such as bird strikes and disabled control systems on the aircraft to the pilots’ apparent rush to attempt a landing soon after declaring an emergency, fire and transport officials have said.
Officials have also faced pointed questions about airport design features, particularly the large dirt-and-concrete embankment near the end of the runway used for navigation equipment.
The plane slammed into the embankment at high speed and erupted into a fireball. Bodies and body parts were thrown into surrounding fields and most of the aircraft disintegrated in flames.
“Unfortunately, that thing was the reason that everybody got killed, because they literally hit a concrete structure,” Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer, the chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts, said.
“It shouldn’t have been there.”
Transport Ministry officials said most South Korean airports were built based on International Civil Aviation Organization rules that recommend a 240m runway-end safety area.
However, a domestic law allows adjusting the location of some installations in a range that does not “significantly affect the performance of the facility”.
“But we’ll look into whether there are any conflicts in our own regulations, and conduct an additional review of our airport safety standards,” Kim Hong-rak, director-general for airport and air navigation facilities policy, told a briefing.
The US Federal Aviation Authority uses different standards, Kim added.
Muan International Airport’s Airport Operations Manual said the navigation equipment, called “localizers”, was installed too near the end of the runway, or just 199m from the crash site.
The document, prepared by Korea Airports Corp and uploaded on its website, said the airport authority should “review securing additional distance during phase two of Muan International Airport’s expansion”.
South Korean officials have previously said the structure was about 250m from the end of the runway itself, though a paved apron extends past that.
The runway design “absolutely (did) not” meet industry best practices, however, said John Cox, chief executive of Safety Operating Systems and a former 737 pilot, adding that they preclude any hard structure like a berm within at least 300m of the end of the runway.
Video showed the plane appearing to slow down and in control when it went off the runway, Cox said. “When it hits that berm is when it turns into tragedy.” — Agencies
