South Korea plane crash: Anger as grieving families wait for victims’ remains
Black box retrieved but families are told bodies of victims may never be found
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Your support makes all the difference.Desperate families who camped out at an airport awaiting news of their loved ones “wailed and passed out” as names of the 179 killed in South Korea’s deadliest plane crash were announced on Monday.
Grief and shock swept through the room as it emerged the only two survivors were cabin crew sitting at the back of the Boeing 737-800 which crash-landed at Muan International airport.
Investigators have retrieved the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, but it could be months before the cause of the disaster is clear – including why Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 from Bangkok landed without its slats or wheels deployed, and why there was a solid object beyond the runway perimeter that the pilots were unable to avoid.
Among those waiting to identify relatives was Maeng Gi Su, whose nephew and his nephew’s two sons were aboard.
“I can’t believe the entire family has just disappeared,” Mr Maeng, 78, told the BBC adding they had been on their way back from a festive trip to Thailand.
“My heart aches so much.”
Five of the people who died were children under the age of 10, with the youngest passenger being a three-year-old boy.
Another man in his sixties said five of his family members spanning three generations had been on the plane, including his sister-in-law, his daughter, her husband and their young children.
Some, who have lost generations in the crash, jostled and argued with officials, angry that they’ve still not been able to see the bodies. One official told the crowds they were unable to view the deceased as their bodies were “very badly damaged”, according to the BBC.
The control tower issued a warning to aircraft about birds shortly before the accident, and the crew sent out a distress signal shortly before impact, officials said.
Experts said it seemed unlikely a bird strike would have been the sole cause of the landing gear malfunctioning; others questioned why such a solid object was built close to the runway end.
“Normally, on an airport with a runway at the end, you don’t have a wall,” said Christian Beckert, a flight safety expert and Lufthansa pilot based in Munich, Germany.
“You more have maybe an engineered material arresting system, which lets the aeroplane sink into the ground a little bit and brakes [it].”
Of the two survivors, one has woken up and is “fully able to communicate”, according to Yonhap, citing the director of the Seoul hospital where he is being treated.
Firefighters described the crash site as overwhelmingly grim as they worked to identify the victims.
“There’s no way to describe it except as utterly horrific,” said a firefighter.
“It was impossible to identify the victims by their faces or even their locations.
“We had to go through the passenger list and painstakingly match any fingerprints we could find.”
South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang Mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation as investigators worked to identify victims and find out what caused the disaster.
A large memorial has been set up about five miles from the crash site, where people including acting President Choi came to pay respects.
Mr Choi, who is overseeing recovery efforts and the investigation, became acting leader just three days ago after the country’s president and prime minister were impeached over the imposition of a short-lived martial law.
Jeju Air in a statement issued a “deep apology” over the crash and said it will do its “utmost to manage the aftermath of the accident”.
In a televised news conference, the company’s president, Kim E Bae, bowed deeply with other senior company officials as he apologised to bereaved families and said he feels “full responsibility” for the crash.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.
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