Pre-flight checks found no problems, Jeju Air executive says

A pre-flight inspection of a Jeju Air passenger plane hours before it crashed in South Korea, killing 179 people, found “no problems”, the airline said.

“Nothing unusual was noticed with the landing gear,” the airline’s chief executive Kim Yi-bae told a news conference in Seoul as investigations continued into why the wheels were not lowered when the plane made the emergency landing.

The plane was traveling from Bangkok when it made an emergency landing at Mueang International Airport on Sunday, bursting into flames and killing all but two crew members on board. after slipping into a wall.

Investigators are still working to identify the victims and the cause of South Korea’s deadliest air crash.

Many questions remain unanswered, and researchers are looking at the role of a bird strike or weather conditions.

They are also focusing on why the Boeing 737-800 did not lower its landing gear when it hit the runway shortly after 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT) on Sunday.

Hundreds of grieving relatives have camped out at Muan airport, furious that they have yet to see the bodies of their loved ones.

So far, only a few of the remains of the victims have been handed over to their families. On Tuesday, four were transported to funeral homes, but most other families are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified.

Responding to questions about the company’s safety procedures on Tuesday, Jeju Air Chief Executive Officer Kim Yi-bae said the plane would not have been cleared for takeoff if the maintenance team had not signed off on its safety.

He said its pilots are trained to regulatory standards and the company has two full flight simulators.

“We have 12.9 maintenance workers per aircraft, up from 12 in 2019,” he said.

“We have a strict maintenance checklist, it’s impossible to miss things. If something is left out, it will be a serious problem.

“As to whether the landing gear was functioning properly, that is directly related to the investigation of the accident and we are not in a position to know at this time.”

Mr. Kim said the airline would reduce its air traffic this winter by 10-15 percent to be able to do more aircraft maintenance, but said that was not an admission that the company was operating too many planes.

He added that they will increase weather monitoring before and after flights.

Mr Kim also acknowledged that Jeju Air had paid the most fines and faced the most administrative actions of any Korean airline in the past five years – but said the company had been steadily improving its safety record.

He said he was committed to strengthening the company’s safety and maintenance procedures, adding: “We aim to restore your trust in us by strengthening our safety measures.”

Kim said the airline is preparing emergency compensation for the victims’ families and covering funeral expenses.

The money will be released soon, he said, before the insurance process is completed. He added that company employees are on site to provide psychological counseling to the families.

The 179 passengers on flight 7C2216 were aged between 3 and 78, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to Yonhap news agency. Two Thai nationals were among the dead, and the rest are believed to be South Koreans, authorities said.

Many relatives are frustrated by how long the process of identifying the victims’ bodies has taken, but officials say it’s a challenge because the people on board were so badly burned in the fire after the crash.

One man the BBC spoke to at the airport said his nephew and two sons were on a holiday trip to Thailand to mark the end of college entrance exams. All three died during the flight.

“I can’t believe the whole family has just disappeared,” Maeng Gi-su, 78, told the BBC. “My heart hurts so much.”

Muang International Airport’s runway will remain closed for another week while forensic teams collect more of the wreckage and debris.

Investigators began examining the plane’s two black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder — on Tuesday.

The second device is missing a critical connector, they say, which will make it difficult to retrieve the data. This could prolong the search for answers as to why this plane was forced to land without its landing gear.

Officials also said they were looking into regulations around a concrete barrier where the plane crashed when it skidded beyond the end of the runway.

Meanwhile, New Year’s celebrations in South Korea have been either canceled or scaled back as the country observes a week of national mourning for the victims of the tragedy.

The annual bell-ringing show that opens the New Year in Seoul will instead be quiet, with no performances and a moment of silence.

On Tuesday, Seoul’s metropolitan government imposed a six-month suspension on a company that went ahead with fireworks on Monday – despite requests from authorities to cancel the event after the disaster.

According to Maeil Business Newspaper, Hyundai Cruise went ahead with a fireworks show on a Han River cruise ship, citing difficulty in canceling the pre-booked event.

The company apologized amid public backlash, and the suspension order means the company will be banned from operating cruise ships on the Han River until June.