South Korea struggles to determine what led to plane crash

Many observers also worry how effectively the South Korean government will handle the aftermath of Sunday's crash as it grapples with a leadership vacuum

Seoul: South Korean officials are struggling to determine what caused a deadly plane crash that killed 179 people, with the nation saddened, shocked and ashamed over the country’s worst aviation disaster in decades.

Many observers also worry how effectively the South Korean government will handle the aftermath of Sunday’s crash as it grapples with a leadership vacuum following the recent successive impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minster Han Duck-soo, the country’s top two officials, amid political tumult caused by Yoon’s brief martial law introduction earlier this month.

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New Acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday presided over a task force meeting on the crash and instructed the Transport Ministry and police to launch investigations into its cause. He also ordered the ministry to implement an emergency review of the country’s overall aircraft operation systems.

“The essence of a responsible response would be renovating the aviation safety systems on the whole to prevent recurrences of similar incidents and building a safer Republic of South Korea,” said Choi, who is also deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

The Boeing 737-800 plane operated by South Korea’s budget airline Jeju Air skidded off a runway at Muan International Airport in the country’s south, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into a fireball. The incident killed all but two of the 181 people aboard. The two survivors are both crew members, and they were pulled from the plane’s tail section — the only part that was still recognisable after the crash.

Joo Jong-wan, the Transport Ministry’s director of aviation policy, said authorities have so far identified 141 of the bodies, and are conducting DNA tests on the other 38. Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines and now a consultant, said the Boeing 737-800 is a “proven airplane” that belongs to a different class of aircraft than the Boeing 737 Max jetliner that was linked to fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.

But the Transport Ministry said Monday the government plans to conduct safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 jetliners operated by the country’s airlines. Ministry officials said they will also look into whether the Muan airport’s localizer — a concrete fence housing a set of antennas designed to guide aircraft safely during landings — should have been made with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact.