MUAN COUNTY – The sounds of sobbing, prayers and anguish echoed through the departures hall of an airport in southwestern South Korea on Monday, as families of the victims killed when a passenger jet crash-landed over last weekend waited for their loved ones to be identified.
All but two people on a Jeju Air plane carrying 175 passengers and six crew died after it crashed at the airport in Muan County just after 9 a.m. local time last Sunday – in what is the deadliest aviation disaster the country has seen in nearly 30 years.
Loved ones inside Muan International Airport wept as medics announced the names of the victims who had been identified. So far, 146 victims have been identified, while efforts are underway to name the remaining 33 bodies, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
In the soaring atrium that normally serves as the airport’s departure hall, scores of families huddled together, murmuring hushed prayers. Some were seen wrapped in each other’s embrace, weeping, while several monks spoke to gathered groups. Rows of yellow tents stood erected for people who had stayed overnight. Several relatives could be seen yelling at officials, demanding more information.
Investigators are working to pinpoint what may have caused the crash of Jeju Air flight 7C 2216, which was flying from Bangkok to Muan. South Korean officials confirmed on Monday that the pilot had reported a bird strike before he made the doomed emergency landing.
“The pilot reported an emergency declaration and go-around due to a bird strike,” said Kang Jung-hyun, a senior official at the transport ministry. The pilot said “mayday, mayday, mayday” three times and used the terms “bird strike” and “go-around,” the official said.
A “go-around” is an aviation term that means a landing is aborted when a plane nears a final approach and instead the pilot will instead increase speed and ascend before attempting another approach or diverting elsewhere.
Footage of Sunday’s crash broadcast by multiple South Korean news outlets showed that neither the back nor front landing gear was visible. Video showed the plane, a Boeing 737-800, sliding on its belly at high speed, hitting an earthen embankment and erupting in a fireball.
Experts told CNN that the plane’s undercarriage – specifically, the wheels used for takeoff and landing – appeared not to have fully deployed. But what caused this failure to deploy, something analysts said was extremely rare, is still unclear.
Two black boxes – the flight data and voice recorders – have been recovered from the crash site, according to a briefing by the transport ministry. But the flight recorder suffered external damage that required it to be sent to an analysis center in Seoul, to see how much information could be extracted and whether it needed to be sent to the United States, the ministry said.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading a team of US investigators, including from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration, to assist South Korean authorities. The NTSB said any information would be released by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.
South Korea’s transport ministry said Monday that the control tower had warned the pilot about birds in the area shortly before the pilot reported a bird strike, made the mayday call and asked to land in the opposite direction.
The ministry made the clarification after saying Sunday the control tower had instructed the pilot to change course shortly after he made the ‘mayday’ call.
The landing attempt occurred about two minutes after the ‘mayday’ call, according to the ministry.
Uncertainty remains as to what exactly went wrong, with some aviation experts questioning how much impact a bird strike could have had in bringing down the Jeju Air plane. (CNN)
Photo: Families mourn air crash victims in South Korean airport. (CNN)
