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 observed with the landing gear,” airline CEO Kim Yi-bae said at a news conference in Seoul, as an investigation continues 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 Muan International Airport on Sunday, bursting into flames and killing all but two crew members on board. after sliding into the wall.
Investigators are still working to identify the victims and determine what caused South Korea’s deadliest plane crash.
Many questions remain unanswered, and investigators are looking at the role of bird strikes or weather conditions.
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 are camping at Muan airport, furious that they have yet to see the bodies of their loved ones.
So far, only some of the victims’ remains have been handed over to their families. Four of them were taken to funeral homes on Tuesday, but most of the 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 CEO Kim Yi-bae said the plane would not have been cleared to take off 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 was missed, it would be a big problem.
“As to whether the landing gear was functioning properly, that is directly related to the accident investigation, and we are not in a position to know that at this time.”
Mr Kim said the airline would reduce its air traffic by 10-15% this winter, so it could do more aircraft maintenance, but said this was not an admission that the company was operating too many aircraft.
He added that he will strengthen monitoring of the time 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 actions of any Korean airline – but said the company was consistently improving its safety.
He said he was committed to strengthening the company’s security and maintenance procedures, adding: “We aim to restore your trust in us by strengthening our security measures.”
Mr. Kim said the airline was 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 three and 78, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to the Yonhap news agency. Two Thai nationals are among the dead, and the others are believed to be South Koreans, authorities said.
Many relatives are frustrated with how long the process of identifying the victims’ bodies has taken, but officials say it is challenging because those on the plane were badly 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 were on a celebratory trip to Thailand to mark the end of college entrance exams. All three died in flight.
“I can’t believe the whole family just disappeared,” Maeng Gi-su, 78, told the BBC. – My heart hurts a lot.
The runway at Muan International Airport will remain closed for another week until forensic teams collect more debris and debris.
On Tuesday, investigators began examining two black boxes on the plane – the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
The second device is missing a critical connector, they say, which will make it difficult to extract data. This could prolong the search for answers as to why this plane had to make an emergency landing without landing gear.
Officials also said they were examining regulations surrounding the concrete barrier the plane hit when it skidded off the end of the runway.
