South Korean police raided the places of work of Jeju Air and the operator of Muan International Airport Thursday as they step up a probe into the deadly crash of a Boeing 737-800 that killed 179 individuals.
The flight was carrying 181 passengers and crew from Thailand to South Korea on Sunday when it issued a mayday name and belly-landed earlier than slamming right into a barrier, killing all aboard besides two flight attendants.
Authorities on Thursday carried out search and seizure operations at Muan airport the place flight 2216 crashed, a regional aviation workplace within the southwestern metropolis, and Jeju Air’s workplace within the capital Seoul, police mentioned.
Jeju Air’s chief government Kim E-bae has additionally been banned from leaving the nation because the investigation continues, police mentioned individually.
“The police plan to swiftly and rigorously decide the trigger and duty for this accident in accordance with the legislation and ideas,” police mentioned in an announcement despatched to AFP.
At Muan airport Thursday, troopers, police and white-suited investigators had been nonetheless combing the crash website, as orange-robed monks held prayer ceremonies close by.
Inside the airport, the steps had been coated in vibrant post-it notes left by mourners.
“Honey, I miss you manner an excessive amount of,” one in all them mentioned.
“Even should you confronted lonely and painful moments in loss of life, might you now soar like a butterfly,” one other learn.
Kim Hong-Ji / REUTERS
Relatives additionally left flowers and meals close to the crash website together with tteokguk — rice cake soup historically loved in South Korea on New Year’s Day — as they mentioned their goodbyes, many in tears.
Star cooks featured in Netflix’s megahit cooking competitors present “Culinary Class Wars”, together with Ahn Yu-seong, joined volunteers in Muan this week to organize meals for the victims’ households.
And individuals nationwide had been remotely pre-paying for espresso on the airport’s cafe in order that victims’ households, who’ve been camped out within the lounge since Sunday, ready for information, may drink without cost.
More our bodies had been launched Thursday to households to organize for funerals, the land ministry mentioned.
Officials initially pointed to a chook strike as a doable reason for the crash, and have since mentioned the probe was additionally analyzing the function of a concrete barrier on the finish of the runway.
Dramatic video confirmed the aircraft colliding with it earlier than bursting into flames.
Yonhap reported the Muan airport warrant was authorised on prices {of professional} negligence leading to loss of life, citing officers.
“Police are securing proof associated to the legitimacy of the airport’s localizer,” Yonhap mentioned, referring to the concrete wall on the finish of the runway housing an antenna array.
They are additionally looking for communication information between the management tower and the pilot shortly earlier than the aircraft crash, it added.
Airports nationwide had been being inspected to test different related localizers, the land ministry mentioned in an announcement.
Some consultants have prompt that the catastrophe might have been much less lethal if the set up not been concrete.
“Key to unlocking this thriller”
South Korea has additionally introduced it can examine all Boeing 737-800 plane operated by its carriers, specializing in the touchdown gear, which seems to have malfunctioned through the Sunday crash.
South Korea’s performing president, Choi Sang-mok, mentioned Thursday that “fast motion” should be taken if that probe uncovered any points with the plane mannequin.
Authorities have beforehand mentioned 101 plane of the identical mannequin had been in operation by six completely different airways.
“As there’s nice public concern about the identical plane mannequin concerned within the accident, the transport ministry and related companies should conduct an intensive inspection of operation upkeep, schooling, and coaching,” Choi mentioned Thursday.
The accident is the worst aviation catastrophe on South Korean soil.
Kim Hong-Ji / REUTERS
South Korean authorities have accomplished the preliminary extraction of information for the cockpit voice recorder, however the flight knowledge recorder was broken and was to be despatched to the United States for evaluation, officers mentioned Wednesday.
Investigators say it was not possible to domestically decode the broken flight knowledge recorder, which is lacking an important connector, BBC News reported.
“I feel the cockpit voice recorder, in the event that they’re in a position to learn that out, that might be key to unlocking this thriller,” Robert Sumwalt, former chair of the NTSB, instructed CBS News.
Jeju Air mentioned the crash was not as a result of “any upkeep points,” based on South Korea’s Yonhap information company, and aviation professional Geoffrey Thomas told BBC News that South Korea’s airways had been broadly deemed to comply with “trade finest observe” and that each the aircraft and Jeju Air had an “glorious security document.”
