By Ju-min Park and Hongji Kim
MUAN COUNTY, South Korea (Reuters) – South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency security inspection of the country’s entire airline operating system as investigators worked to identify the victims and discover what caused the deadliest air disaster in the country.
All 175 passengers and four of six crew members were killed when a Jeju Air (NYSE:) Boeing 737-800 landed and skidded off the runway at Muan International Airport, exploding into a fireball that crashed into a wall. Two crew members were rescued alive.
The top priority for now is to identify the victims, support their families and treat the two survivors, Choi said at a disaster management meeting in Seoul.
“Even before the final results are known, we ask that officials transparently disclose the accident investigation process and promptly inform grieving families,” he said.
“As soon as the accident recovery is carried out, the Ministry of Transportation is requested to carry out an emergency safety inspection of the entire aircraft operation system to prevent the recurrence of air accidents,” he said.
As a first step, the Transport Ministry announced plans to conduct a special inspection of all 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by South Korean airlines starting Monday, focusing on the maintenance record of key components.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, from Bangkok, the Thai capital, was attempting to land shortly after 9:00 a.m. (00:00 GMT) on Sunday at the airport in the south of the country.
Investigators are examining bird strikes, whether any of the aircraft’s control systems were disabled and the pilots’ apparent rush to try to land shortly after declaring an emergency as possible factors in the crash, fire and transportation officials said. .
Experts say many questions remain, including why the plane, powered by two CFM 56-7B26 engines, appeared to be traveling so fast and why its landing gear did not appear to be down when it skidded down the runway and hit a concrete embankment. .
CFM International is a joint venture between GE Aerospace and the French safran (EPA:).
On Monday, Transportation Ministry officials said that while the pilots were making a scheduled approach, they told air traffic control that the plane had suffered a bird strike, shortly after the control tower advised them that birds had been seen. in the vicinity.
The pilots then issued a distress call and signaled their intention to abandon the landing and turn around and try again. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft fell to the runway in a belly landing, landing about 1,200 meters (1,312 yd) along the 2,800 meter (3,062 yd) runway and sliding toward the embankment at the end of the runway.
‘YOU DON’T HAVE A WALL’
Authorities are investigating what role the locator antenna, placed at the end of the runway to assist in landing, including the concrete embankment on which it was located, played in the accident, Transportation Ministry officials said at a news conference.
“Normally, at an airport with a runway at the end, there is no wall,” said Christian Beckert, an aviation safety expert and Lufthansa pilot based in Munich. “Maybe you have an engineered material arrester system, which allows the plane to sink into the ground a little bit and slows it down.”
The accident mainly killed local residents returning from their vacation in Thailand, while two Thai citizens were also killed.
“I can only accept it and make peace with it,” said Boonchuay Duangmanee, 77, father of one of the Thai victims. “When I think about it, I remind myself that it was an accident. It’s something that can happen to anyone. So I’ve accepted it because no matter what I do, my daughter won’t come back.”
On Monday morning, investigators were trying to identify some of the more than two dozen remaining victims, as distraught families waited inside the Muan airport terminal.
Park Han-shin, who lost his brother in the accident, said authorities told him that his brother had been identified but that they had not been able to see his body.
Park called on families of other victims to come together to respond to the disaster and recovery efforts, citing the 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people. Many relatives of victims of the Sewol ferry disaster complained that authorities took too long to identify the dead and the cause of the accident.
Transportation Ministry officials said the plane’s flight data recorder was recovered but appeared to have suffered some damage to the exterior and it was not yet clear whether the data was intact enough to be analyzed.
The recorder has been transported to Seoul and an analysis will begin when a team from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing officials arrive in the country late Monday, officials told reporters.
Muan International Airport remains closed as of Wednesday, but the rest of the country’s international and regional airports, including the main Incheon International Airport, were operating as planned.
Jeju Air shares hit their lowest level on record on Monday, trading as much as 15.7% lower.
Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civilian investigation into the crash and automatically involve the NTSB, since the plane was designed and built in the United States.
A large memorial was set up at a county gymnasium about 9 kilometers (5 miles) from the crash site, where people, including acting President Choi, came to pay their respects.
Choi, who is overseeing recovery efforts and the investigation, became interim leader just three days ago after the country’s president and prime minister were charged over the imposition of short-lived martial law.