South Korea to Inspect Boeing Planes as It Struggles to Find Cause of Plane Crash That Killed 179

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean officials said Monday they will conduct safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800 planes operated by the country's airlines, as they struggle to determine what caused the plane crash that killed 179 people a day ago.

Sunday's crash, the country's worst aviation disaster in decades, has sparked an outpouring of national sympathy. Many people are worried about how well the South Korean government will handle the crisis as it faces a leadership crisis following the recent impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, two of the country's top officials, amid the political upheaval created by Yoon's. the brief imposition of martial law earlier this month.

New Acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday chaired a meeting of the emergency response team and ordered authorities to review the country's aviation operations.

Read more: Plane skids off runway and bursts into flames as it lands in South Korea, killing 179

“The core of the appropriate response will be to completely overhaul aviation security systems to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents and build a safer Republic of South Korea,” said Choi, who is also deputy prime minister and finance minister.

A Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air has aborted its first landing attempt for reasons that were not immediately clear. Then, when it attempted to land a second time, it received a bird strike warning from the ground control center before its pilot released the distress signal. The plane landed without front landing gear, overshot the runway, hit a concrete fence and burst into flames.

Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines and now a consultant, said the Boeing 737-800 is a “proven aircraft” in a different class to the Boeing 737 Max jetliner that was linked to fatal crashes in 2018. and 2019.

But South Korea's Transport Ministry said on Monday it plans to conduct a safety inspection of all 101 Boeing 737-800 planes operated by the country's airlines and a comprehensive review of safety standards at Jeju Air, which operates 39 of those planes. The department's chief executive Joo Jong-wan said representatives of the US National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing are expected to arrive in South Korea on Monday to participate in the investigation.

Ministry officials also said they would look into whether Muan Airport's mainstay – a concrete fence with antennas designed to guide aircraft safely when landing – should have been made of lighter materials that could easily break in a collision.

Joo said the minister has decided that similar concrete structures are at other domestic airports, including Jeju Island and the southern cities of Yeosu and Pohang, as well as airports in the United States, Spain and South Africa.

Video of the crash showed the pilots did not deploy flaps or slats to slow the plane down, suggesting a possible hydraulic failure, and they did not lower the landing gear, indicating they were running out of time, said John Cox, a retired pilot. The CEO of Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Besides, the plane was under control and flying in a straight line, and the damage and injuries would have been minimized had it not been for the obstacle being so close to the runway, Cox said.

Some viewers said that the videos showed that the plane had engine trouble but that the malfunctioning of the landing gear was the direct cause of the crash. They said there would be no connection between the landing gear problem and the suspected engine problem.

Earlier on Monday, another Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air returned to Seoul's Gimpo International Airport shortly after takeoff when the pilot experienced a landing gear problem. Jeju Air CEO Song Kyung-hoon said the issue was resolved by contacting the ground control center, but the pilot decided to return to Gimpo as a precaution.

Joo said officials were looking into the possibility of communication problems between the air traffic controllers and the pilot. “Our current understanding is that, at some point during the orbital process, communications became ineffective or disrupted, prior to arrival and impact,” he said.

Ministry officials said on Monday that the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders had been moved to a research center at Gimpo Airport before being analysed. Earlier, officials of the Department said that it will take months to complete the investigation into the accident.

The Muan crash is South Korea's worst aviation disaster since 1997, when a Korean Air Force One crashed in Guam, killing 228 people.

The crash left many South Koreans shocked and ashamed, as the government declared a seven-day period of national mourning until Jan. 4. Some have questioned whether the accident involves safety or regulatory issues, such as the 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul that killed 160 people and the 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people.

The Department of Transport said authorities have identified 146 bodies and are collecting DNA samples and fingerprints from 33 others.

Mr. Park Han Shin, representing the bereaved families, said they were told that the bodies were so badly damaged that officials needed time before they could be returned to their families.

“I am asking the government to gather more workers to return my brothers and family members whole as soon as possible,” he said with tears in his eyes.

The crash was still big news for South Koreans already reeling from the political crisis created by Yoon's martial law, which brought hundreds of soldiers to the streets of Seoul and revived painful memories of past military rule in the 1970s-80s.

The political scandal led the opposition-controlled National Assembly to impeach Yoon and Han. The Minister of Security resigned and the Chief of Police was arrested because of their role in security.

The absence of senior disaster management officials has raised concerns.

“We are very concerned about whether the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters can really handle this disaster,” the mass-circulation newspaper JoongAng Ilbo said in an editorial on Monday.