South Korea orders air safety investigation after 179 killed in country’s worst plane crash By Reuters

Written by Jo Min Park and Hongji Kim

MUAN COUNTY, South Korea (Reuters) – Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operating system as investigators work to identify victims and find the cause of the country’s deadliest air disaster.

The accident that occurred on Sunday killed 179 people when a Jeju Air plane landed on its belly, skidded off the end of the runway, and exploded in a fireball when it hit a wall at Muan International Airport. Two crew members were recovered alive.

Choi said at a disaster management meeting in Seoul that the top priority now is to identify victims, support their families and treat survivors.

“Even before the final results come out, we ask officials to transparently disclose the incident investigation process and immediately inform the bereaved families,” he said.

“Once the accident recovery process is completed, the Ministry of Transport is required to conduct an emergency safety inspection of the entire aircraft operating system to prevent recurrence of aircraft accidents,” he said.

Jeju Air flight No. 7C2216, coming from the Thai capital, Bangkok, with 175 passengers and six crew members on board, was trying to land shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Sunday at the airport in the south of the country.

Fire officials said investigators are examining bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors in the crash. Experts say many questions remain, including why the twin-engine Boeing 737-800 appeared to be traveling so fast and why its landing gear did not appear to malfunction when it skidded down the runway and hit the wall.

The accident killed most of the local residents who were returning from vacation in Thailand, and two Thai citizens also died.

On Monday morning, investigators were trying to identify some of the remaining victims, while grief-stricken families waited inside the Moan Airport terminal.

Park Han-shin, who lost his brother in the accident, said authorities told him that his brother had been identified but he was unable to see his body.

Park called on the families of other victims to unite in the disaster response and recovery efforts, citing the sinking of a ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people. Prolonged efforts were made to identify the victims and the cause of the sinking following that disaster.

Emergency workers were examining the wreckage, which was almost completely destroyed when flames and debris engulfed the plane at the regional airport near the country’s jagged western coast.

Transport Ministry officials said the plane’s flight data recorder had been recovered but appeared to have suffered some external damage and it was not yet clear whether the data was intact enough to be analysed.

Muan Airport remains closed as of Wednesday, but the rest of the country’s international and regional airports, including the main Incheon International Airport, are operating as scheduled.

Shares of South Korean airline Jeju Air hit an all-time low on Monday, trading down as much as 15.7%.

Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civil investigation into the accident and will automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States, where the plane was designed and manufactured.

The NTSB said it is leading a team of US investigators to assist South Korea’s aviation authority. Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration are also participating.

Choe, who had been overseeing the recovery and investigation efforts, became acting commander just three days ago after the country’s president and prime minister were removed due to the imposition of short-lived martial law.