Hard to say goodbye: People visiting a memorial altar for victims who died in the crash at the departures hall of Muan International Airport. — AFP
Grieving mother Lee Hyo-eun returns every weekend to the airport where her daughter and 178 others died last year, desperate for the truth about South Korea’s deadliest airline disaster.
Jeju Air Flight 2216 was coming in to land at Muan International Airport from Thailand when it struck a flock of birds and was forced to make a belly landing that sent it crashing into a structure at the end of the runway.
Only two flight attendants seated in the tail section survived.
Lee vividly remembers that day.
Last memory: A photo printed from a recovered phone from the wreckage of Jeju Air Flight 2216, shows one of the last pictures taken of Ye-won, a cello instructor, who had just celebrated her birthday and was due to return from a short holiday in Bangkok. — AFP
Her daughter Ye-won, a cello instructor, had just celebrated her birthday and was due to return from a short holiday in Bangkok.
Lee was planning a welcome dinner when her sister called to ask if Ye-won had landed.
What happened next, she said, was “unbelievable”.
“She was gone when she was at her brightest, in full bloom at 24,” Lee said.
Official findings have pointed to pilot error in explaining why the Dec 29, 2024 crash happened.
But one year on, Lee and other relatives of the victims say they harbour deep mistrust over how the investigation has been handled.
They are still demanding answers over the key question surrounding the crash: why was there a concrete block at the end of the runway, despite international aviation safety guidelines?
Words of comfort: Lee looking at notes left for Ye-won and other victims who died in the Jeju Air Flight 2216 plane crash. — AFP
At the Muan airport – which has been closed to commercial flights since the crash – families of the victims spend days and nights in and around tents set up in the departure terminal on the second floor.
Blue ribbons symbolising the victims adorn the airport, while letters remembering the dead line the stairways.
Banners draped along the walls criticise the official investigation, with one reading: “A country incapable of protecting citizens is not a country. We demand answers!”
Park In-wook said he is “famous” among the two dozen relatives who choose to return to the airport weekend after weekend.
He lost five loved ones in the crash: his wife, daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren.
“Almost a year has passed, but I cannot recall how many days it took to hold my wife’s funeral or the exact date it took place,” said Park, 70.
The families’ anger intensified following the release of an interim investigation report in July.
The report emphasised that the pilot decided to shut down the less damaged left engine during the crash, but it did not address the concrete structure housing antenna localisers at the end of the runway.
Never forgotten: Blue ribbons left in tribute on a fence above a white flower, a bottle of water and a toy truck, left as offerings, near a roadside area outside the end of the runway at Muan International Airport. — AFP
International aviation safety guidelines state that such navigation structures should be made of frangible, or breakable, material – a recommendation not followed at the Muan airport.
A nationwide inspection after the crash found six other airports with localisers housed in concrete or steel structures.
“The July report highlights the government’s attempt to frame the accident as being caused mainly by pilot error,” Ko Jae-seung, 43, who lost both parents in the crash, said.
“An official investigation should not be about assigning blame to individuals but about examining the systems and conditions that made the accident inevitable,” Ko said.
Ye-won’s mother believes the pilots did everything they could in those crucial moments to save lives on board.
“They managed to land the plane on its belly against all odds, with everyone still alive at that point, without knowing there was a concrete structure ahead of them,” she said at her home in the southwestern city of Gwangju.
“Everyone could have survived – only with injuries – if it had been a mound of earth.” — AFP
