South Korea ramped up investigations on Tuesday into the cause of its deadliest domestic air crash as police worked to identify victims while families of those killed in the Jeju Air jet crash 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.
Comments 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.
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Impatience rose on Tuesday among families gathered at the airport as they waited for the bodies of their loved ones to be released.
One bereaved relative, Park Han-shin urged people to stay patient and said the bodies being held in freezers were prepared for transfer to funeral homes but the process.
The National Police Agency said it was making all-out efforts to speed up identification of the five bodies still unknown, allocating more personnel and equipment such as rapid DNA analysers.
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 January 3rd, though the airport would stay closed until January 7th, it added in a statement.
Personnel from the US National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and aircraft maker Boeing have joined the investigations.
On Monday, South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation.
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 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,” said Capt Ross Aimer, the chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts. “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 location of some installations in a range that does not “significantly affect” the facility's performance.
“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-rack, director general for airport and air navigation facilities policy, told a briefing.
Muan International Airport's Airport Operations Manual said the navigation equipment, called localisers, was installed too near the end of the runway, or just 199m (218 yards) 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”. – Reuters
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