Seoul (TDI): South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety probe of the country’s entire airline operation system as investigators worked to identify victims and find out what caused deadliest air disaster in the country.
All 175 passengers and 4 of the six crew lost their lives when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 belly-landed, skidded off the runway at the Muan International Airport, and erupted into a fireball upon crashing into a wall. 2 crew members were pulled out alive.
The top priority for now is identifying the victims, assisting their families and treating the 2 survivors, Choi told a disaster management meeting in Seoul.
“Even before the final results are available, we instruct officials to transparently disclose the investigation process and immediately inform the bereaved families,” he stated.
“Once the accident recovery is completed, the transport ministry is urged to conduct an emergency safety examination of the whole aircraft operation system to prevent further aircraft accidents,” he said.
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The transport ministry said authorities were considering whether to conduct a special checking of all 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by South Korean airliners.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and 6 crew on board, was trying to land shortly after 9am (0000 GMT) on Sunday at the airport in the south of the country.
Investigators are examining bird strikes and weather conditions as possible causes in the crash, fire officials have said.
Crash Raises Questions
Experts say many questions remain, including why the aircraft, powered by two CFM 56-7B26 engines, appeared to be travelling so fast and why its landing gear did not appear to be down when it skidded down the runway.
CFM International is a joint venture between France’s Safran and GE Aerospace.
On Monday, transport ministry said as the pilots made a scheduled approach, they told air traffic control the plane had suffered a bird strike, shortly after the control tower gave them a warning birds were spotted in the vicinity.
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The pilots then declared a mayday and indicated their intention to go around, shortly before the lane belly-landed on the runway and crashed into a structure at the end.
