South Korean police raided the office. Jeju Air and the Muan International Airport operator said Thursday they are stepping up investigations into the fatal accident. boeing 737-800 179 people died.
What the plane was carrying Number of passengers: 181 On Sunday, a crew heading from Thailand to South Korea also issued a mayday call and made a belly landing, crashing into a barrier and killing all passengers except two flight attendants.
Police said authorities conducted search and seizure operations Thursday at Muan Airport, where Flight 2216 crashed, the regional aviation office in the southwestern city, and the Jeju Air Office in the capital Seoul.
Police separately announced that Jeju Air CEO Kim Ae-beh has also been banned from leaving the country as the investigation continues.
“Police will swiftly and rigorously investigate the cause and responsibility for this accident in accordance with the law and principles,” police said in a statement sent to AFP.
At Muan Airport on Thursday, soldiers, police and white-suited investigators were still searching the crash site as orange-robed monks held prayers nearby.
Colorful sticky notes left by mourners were affixed to the stairs inside the airport.
“Honey, we miss you so much,” one of them said.
“Even if you face a lonely and painful death, I hope you can now fly away like a butterfly.”
Kim Hongji/Reuters
Relatives of the deceased also left flowers and food near the crash site, including tteokguk (rice cake soup traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day in South Korea), to bid farewell, and many shed tears.
Star chefs, including Ahn Yoo-sung, who appeared on Netflix’s hit cooking competition show “Cooking Class Wars,” volunteered in Muan this week to prepare meals for the families of the victims.
And since Sunday, people across the country have been remotely prepaying for coffee at airport cafes so that families of victims camped out in lounges waiting for news can drink for free.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said more bodies were released to families on Thursday for funeral preparations.
Officials initially cited a bird strike as a possible cause of the crash, but later said investigators were also looking into the role of a concrete barrier at the end of the runway.
Dramatic video showed the plane crashing before bursting into flames.
Yonhap News reported, citing sources, that a warrant for the Muan airport on suspicion of causing death due to professional negligence has been approved.
“Police have secured evidence regarding the legitimacy of the airport’s localizer,” Yonhap News said, referring to the concrete wall at the end of the runway where the antenna array is installed.
They are also seeking records of communications between the control tower and the pilot just before the plane crashed.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said in a statement that it is inspecting airports across the country to check for other similar localizers.
Some experts have suggested that the disaster may have killed fewer people if the installation had not been made of concrete.
“The key to solving this mystery”
South Korea also said it would inspect all Boeing 737-800s operated by its airlines, especially the landing gear that appeared to have failed in Sunday’s crash.
South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, said on Thursday that “immediate action” must be taken if an investigation reveals any problems with the aircraft model.
Authorities previously said 101 of the aircraft were operated by six different airlines.
Choi said on Thursday, “The public is concerned because the same model of aircraft was involved in an accident, and the Ministry of Transportation and related organizations must thoroughly inspect operations, education, and training.”
This accident is the worst aviation accident on mainland South Korea.
Kim Hongji/Reuters
South Korean authorities have completed an initial data extraction of the cockpit voice recorder, but the flight data recorder was damaged and will be sent to the United States for analysis, officials announced Wednesday.
Investigators said it was impossible to decrypt the damaged flight data recorder locally, which was missing a critical connector, BBC News reported.
“If the cockpit voice recorder can read it out loud, I think that’s the key to solving this mystery,” former NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt told CBS News.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Jeju Air said the crash was not due to “maintenance issues,” and aviation expert Jeffrey Thomas told BBC News that South Korean airlines generally follow “industry best practices.” ” and said the plane’s crash was not due to “maintenance issues.” And Jeju Air had an “excellent safety record.”
