ReutersA pre-flight inspection of a Jeju Air passenger plane hours before it crashed in South Korea, killing 179 people, found “no issues”, the airline has said.
“Nothing abnormal was noted with the landing gear,” the airline’s CEO Kim Yi-bae told a news conference in Seoul, as investigations continue into why the wheels were not down when it performed an emergency landing.
The plane was travelling from Bangkok when it crash-landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday, bursting into flames and killing everyone onboard, save for two crew members, after skidding into a wall.
Investigators are still working to identify victims and establish what caused South Korea’s deadliest ever air crash.
Many question remain unanswered and investigators are looking at the role a bird strike or weather conditions may have played.
They are also focusing on why the Boeing 737-800 did not have its landing gear down when it hit the runway shortly after 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT) on Sunday.
Hundreds of grieving relatives have been camping out at the airport in Muan, furious that they have not yet seen the bodies of their loved ones.
So far just a few of the victims’ remains have been released 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.
Addressing questions over the company’s safety procedures on Tuesday, Jeju Air’s CEO 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 were trained to regulation standards, and the company had two full flight simulators.
“We have 12.9 maintenance workers per aeroplane, which has increased from 12 in 2019,” he said.
“We have a strict maintenance checklist, it is not possible to miss things. If something was missed it would be a grave problem.
“As for whether the landing gear functioned properly, that is directly related to the accident investigation, 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%, in order to be able to carry out more maintenance work on the planes, but said this was not an admission that the company was running too many planes.
He added that they would increase their monitoring of weather before and after flights.
Mr Kim also acknowledged that over the past five years, Jeju Air had paid the most fines and faced the most administrative action of any Korean airline – but said the company was consistently improving its safety record.
He said he was committed to strengthening the company’s safety and maintenance procedures, adding: “We aim to repair your trust in us by strengthening our safety measures.”
Mr Kim said the airline was preparing emergency compensation for the victims’ families and were covering the cost of the funerals.
The money would be released soon, he said, before the insurance process is completed. He added that company employees are on site to provide psychological counselling to the families.
The 179 passengers on flight 7C2216 were aged between three and 78 years old, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to Yonhap news agency. Two Thai nationals are among the dead and the rest are believed to be South Korean, authorities have said.
Many relatives are frustrated with how long the process of identifying victims’ bodies has taken, but officials say it is challenging because those on board were so severely burned in the fire after the crash.
One man the BBC spoke to at the airport said his nephew and his nephew’s two sons had been on a celebratory trip to Thailand to mark the end of the college entrance exams. All three died on the flight.
“I can’t believe the entire family has just disappeared,” Maeng Gi-su, 78, told the BBC. “My heart aches so much.”
The runway at Muan International Airport is to stay closed for another week while forensic teams collect more of the remains and debris.
Investigators began inspecting 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 more difficult to extract 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 are examining regulations around a concrete barrier which the plane smashed into when it skidded beyond the end of the runway.
