The police of South Korea carried out searches at Muan airport and airline offices on Thursday Jeju Air linked to the crashed landing of a Boeing 737-800 that killed 179 people.
The aircraft from Bangkok landed on Sunday in Muan without landing gear and hit a wall at the end of the runway, quickly becoming engulfed in flames. Only two flight attendants made it out alive.
Researchers of South Korea and the United Statessome from the manufacturer Boeing, are tracking the site of the accident in this southwestern city to establish the causes of the event. The two black boxes have been found and are being analyzed.
“In relation to the plane crash that occurred on December 29, a search and seizure operation is being carried out” at Muan airport, Jeju Air’s Seoul office and a regional aviation office, police said in a statement. a statement sent to AFP.
“Police plan to quickly and rigorously determine the cause and responsibility for this accident,” he added.
After the accident, South Korean authorities announced that all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operating in the country will undergo special inspections, focused on the landing gear, which appears to have failed in Sunday’s incident.
South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok said they will take “immediate action” if those inspections reveal problems with the plane model.
At Muan airport, relatives and local residents set up an improvised memorial with flowers and messages for the victims of the worst aviation accident in South Korea’s history.
“Honey, I miss you so much,” one note read.
Authorities initially cited a bird strike as the probable cause of the tragedy, but later pointed to the presence of a barrier at the end of the runway as a reason for what happened.
On Wednesday, investigators completed data extraction from the black box with cockpit voice recordings, but the other one with flight data is damaged and was sent to the United States for analysis there.
