Agencies
Seoul
A pre-flight inspection of a Jeju Air passenger plane hours before it crashed in South Korea, killing 179 people, found “no issues”, the airline has said.
“Nothing abnormal was noted with the landing gear,” the airline’s CEO Kim Yi-bae told a news conference in Seoul, as investigations continue into why the wheels were not down when it performed an emergency landing.
The plane was travelling from Bangkok when it crash-landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday, bursting into flames and killing everyone onboard, save for two crew members, after skidding into a wall.
Investigators are still working to identify victims and establish what caused South Korea’s deadliest ever air crash.
Many question remain unanswered and investigators are looking at the role a bird strike or weather conditions may have played.
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 have been camping out at the airport in Muan, furious that they have not yet seen the bodies of their loved ones.
So far just a few of the victims’ remains have been released to their families. On Tuesday, four were transported to funeral homes but most other families are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified.
Addressing questions over the company’s safety procedures on Tuesday, Jeju Air’s CEO Kim Yi-bae said the plane would not have been cleared for takeoff if the maintenance team had not signed off on its safety.
He said its pilots were trained to regulation standards, and the company had two full flight simulators.
“We have 12.9 maintenance workers per aeroplane, which has increased from 12 in 2019,” he said.
