South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country's entire airline operating system as investigators worked to identify victims and determine what caused the country's deadliest plane crash.
All 175 passengers and four of six crew members were killed when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 landed on its belly and skidded off the end of the runway at Muan International Airport on Sunday, erupting in a ball of fire after hitting a wall. Two crew members were pulled out alive.
The top priority now is to identify victims, support their families and treat the two survivors, Choi said during a meeting on disaster management in Seoul.
“Even before the final results are announced, we ask that officials transparently disclose the investigation into the accident and immediately inform the bereaved families,” he said.
“Immediately after the failure is rectified, the Ministry of Transport is requested to conduct an emergency safety inspection of the entire aircraft operating system to prevent the recurrence of aviation accidents.”
In 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 history of key components.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from Thailand's capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew members on board, attempted to land shortly after 9 a.m. local time at an airport in the south of the country.
Investigators are examining possible factors in the crash, including bird strikes, damage to any of the plane's control systems and the pilots' apparent rush to attempt a landing shortly after declaring an emergency, fire and transportation officials say.
Experts say many questions remain, including why the plane, powered by two CFM 56-7B26 engines, appeared to be going so fast and why its landing gear did not appear to be down as it skidded down the runway and hit the wall.
CFM International is a joint venture between GE Aerospace and the French company Safran.
On Monday, Transport Ministry officials said the pilots, approaching as planned, told air traffic control that the plane had struck a bird, shortly after the control tower gave them a warning that birds had been spotted nearby.
Authorities are investigating what caused the plane to crash at South Korea's Muan airport after it skidded on the runway and burst into flames, killing at least 179 people on board.
The pilots then issued a mayday warning and signaled their intention to abandon the landing, circle and try again. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft landed on the runway in a belly landing, landing approximately 1,200 meters on the 2,800-meter runway and sliding onto an embankment at the end of the runway.
The services are investigating what role the localizer antenna located at the end of the runway that aided in landing, including the concrete embankment on which it stood, played in the crash, Transport Ministry officials said at a press conference.
“Usually in an airport with a runway at the end there is no wall,” said Christian Beckert, a flight safety expert and Lufthansa pilot who lives in Munich.
“Maybe you have a material retention system developed that allows the plane to go a little deeper into the ground and slow down (it).”
The disaster killed mainly local residents who were returning from vacation in Thailand, and two Thai citizens also died.
“I can only accept it and come to terms with it,” said Boonchuay Duangmanee, 77, the father of one of the Thai victims. “When I think about it, I remember it was an accident. It's something that can happen to anyone. So I came to terms with it, because no matter what I do, my daughter won't come back.”
On Monday morning, investigators tried to identify some of the latest victims as anguished families waited at the Muan airport terminal.
Park Han-shin, who lost his brother in the crash, said authorities told him his brother had been identified but had not been able to see his body.
The park called on families of other victims to unite in response to the disaster and recovery efforts, citing the 2014 sinking of a ferry that killed more than 300 people. Many relatives of the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster complained that it took the authorities too long to determine the victims and the causes of the accident.
The flight data recorder was recovered
Rescuers were searching through the wreckage, which was almost completely destroyed when the plane was engulfed in an explosion of flames and debris at a regional airport near the country's winding west coast.
Transport Ministry officials said the jet's flight data recorder had been recovered, but it appeared to have suffered some external damage and it was not yet clear whether the data was intact enough to be analyzed.
Jeju Air shares hit an all-time low on Monday, falling as much as 15.7%. Boeing's U.S.-listed shares fell 4.2 percent in early trading and were expected to lose about $5 billion in market capitalization.
Under global aviation regulations, South Korea will lead a civil investigation into the crash and automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States, where the plane was designed and built.
The NTSB said it was leading a team of U.S. investigators to assist South Korean aviation authorities. Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration also participated in the study.
Choi, who has overseen 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 short-lived martial law.