At 9:03 a.m. KST on December 29, a Jeju Air flight from Bangkok carrying 175 passengers and six crew skidded off the runway of the Muan International Airport in South Korea’s South Jeolla province. According to the South Korean Land Ministry, 179 aboard were killed and only two crew members survived. The plane had landed on its belly after failing to deploy landing gear.
According to videos capturing the airplane – a Boeing 737-800 – trying to land on the runway, there was a visible flare on its right engine. Based on this, some local media said there had been some issues with the right engine due to a bird strike. However, it is still unknown what caused the crash, and the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it could take months to find out the main cause of the disaster – the deadliest in South Korea’s aviation history.
The plane was on its way to land on the runway but its landing gear had not come down, meaning it attempted to touch down with its belly. It exploded after slamming into a concrete wall installed at the end of the runway. With no operational landing gear, the captain failed to slow down the plane, but experts said there could not be many options for the captain, considering the short interval between his “Mayday” call to the control tower and the landing.
Choi Sang-mok, the acting president who is also the finance minister, has designated a mourning period from December 29 to January 4. The Muan Airport has been shut down until January 1.
Choi said on December 29 that he asked the officials to promptly update the bereaved families on the investigation process and the findings, even before the final results come out.
The leadership of the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party visited the airport to console the bereaved families. However, the families could not stop wailing.
Of the 175 passengers – all of whom were killed – 173 were South Koreans; two were from Thailand. Most of the victims who were assumed to have been on their way home from a vacation in Thailand.
Also, due to the explosion of the airplane, the bodies were severely damaged, impeding the process of recovering remains. As of this writing, the Land Ministry said it had confirmed the identities of 149 victims. According to local media reports, some bereaved families lamented that they had not been allowed to see the bodies of their family members yet and may never be able to see them.
Park Han-shin stood before local media reporters at the Muan International Airport as a representative of those who lost loved ones in the plane crash. Park told reporters that he and other bereaved families were told that it would take a long time to recover the bodies due to the severity of damage caused by the explosion. In this context, he demanded the government to add workers to the recovery effort so that family members can view the remains as soon as possible.
According to Park, what the bereaved families want the most is to be able to see the bodies with their own eyes.
Only a day after the disaster, another Jeju Air airplane had to fly back to the point of departure only 24 minutes after its take-off. According to media reports, this airplane also had a landing gear issue. Amid growing concerns over the safety of the airplanes, the Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Ministry announced on December 30 that it will conduct a full investigation on all Boeing 737-800 planes in the country.
For South Koreans, December 2024 has been especially challenging. On December 3, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law with no warning. Eleven days after his illegitimate declaration of martial law, he was impeached by the National Assembly with at least 12 votes from his own party’s lawmakers. He is suspended from his duties until the Constitutional Court rules on the impeachment motion.
On December 30, the Joint Investigation Unit requested an arrest warrant against Yoon – which is the first arrest warrant issued toward a sitting president in South Korea’s history – after he repeatedly refused to appear for questioning and to accept the search and seizure warrants relating to the presidential office.
Only 13 days after Yoon’s impeachment by the National Assembly, Han Duck-soo, the prime minister of South Korea who was the acting president, was also impeached by the National Assembly controlled by the DP due to his decision not to approve the legislature’s appointments of three judges for the Constitutional Court.
Three days after Han’s impeachment, which elevated the deputy prime minister to the acting president role, one of the deadliest disasters in the country’s history occurred. Now, South Korea faces a severe test to demonstrate the stability of its government amid Yoon’s impeachment process even as its safety systems face new questions.