South Korean police raided the offices of Jeju Air and operator of Muan International Airport on Thursday as they stepped up their investigation into the deadly crash of a Boeing 737-800 that killed 179 people.
The flight was carrying 181 passengers and crew from Thailand to South Korea on Sunday when it issued a mayday call and aborted landing before hitting a barrier, killing all but two flight attendants.
Police said authorities carried out search and seizure operations Thursday at Muan Airport, where Flight 2216 crashed, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city and the office of Jeju Air in the capital Seoul.
Separately, police said Jeju Air Chief Executive Kim Ee-bae was also banned from leaving the country pending the investigation.
“Police plan to rapidly and strictly determine the cause and responsibility for this accident in accordance with law and principles,” the police said in a statement sent to AFP.
At Mu’an Airport on Thursday, soldiers, police and white-clad investigators were still examining the crash site, as orange-robed monks held prayer ceremonies nearby.
Inside the airport, the stairs were covered with colorful Post-It notes left by mourners.
One of them said, “Honey, I miss you so much.”
Another wrote, “Even though you may have faced lonely and painful moments in death, you can now fly high like a butterfly.”
Relatives also left flowers and food near the crash site, including tteokguk – rice cake soup traditionally enjoyed on New Year’s Day in South Korea – with many in tears as they said goodbye.
Star chefs featured on Netflix’s megahit cooking competition show “Culinary Class Wars,” including Ahn Yoo-seong, joined volunteers in Muan this week to prepare meals for the victims’ families.
And people across the country were remotely pre-paying for coffee at airport cafes so that victims’ families, who have been camped out in lounges since Sunday waiting for news, could drink for free.
The Land Ministry said more bodies were handed over to families on Thursday to prepare for funerals.
concrete barrier
Officials initially pointed to bird strike as a possible cause of the crash, and have since said the investigation is also examining the role of the concrete barrier at the end of the runway.
Dramatic video shows the planes colliding before bursting into flames.
Yonhap quoted officials as saying that a warrant for Mu’an Airport on charges of professional negligence resulting in death had been approved.
“Police are securing evidence related to the validity of the airport’s localization,” Yonhap said, referring to a concrete wall containing an antenna array at the end of the runway.
It said they are also seeking communication records between the control tower and the pilot shortly before the plane crash.
Airports across the country are being inspected to check for other similar localities, the Land Ministry said in a statement.
Some experts have suggested that the disaster would have been less deadly if the installation had not been concrete.
boeing inspection
South Korea has also announced it will inspect all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by its carrier, focusing on the landing gear, which was damaged during Sunday’s crash.
South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok said Thursday that “immediate action” should be taken if the investigation reveals any problems with the plane model.
Officials had earlier said that 101 aircraft of the same model were in operation by six different airlines.
“Since there is great public concern about the same aircraft model involved in the accident, the Ministry of Transportation and related agencies should conduct a thorough inspection of operation maintenance, education and training,” Choi said Thursday.
The accident is the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.
South Korean officials have completed the initial extraction of data for the cockpit voice recorder, but the flight data recorder was damaged and had to be sent to the United States for analysis, officials said Wednesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
