As authorities investigate the crash of a passenger plane, police are carrying out a “search and seizure operation” at the airline’s offices and at the airport.
South Korean police have banned Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae from leaving the country amid an investigation into the deadliest air disaster ever to hit South Korean soil.
The move came Thursday as aviation authorities intensified their investigation into the cause of the deadly crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 on Sunday, which killed 179 of the 181 people on board, and police issued a statement saying they planned act “quickly and rigorously.” determine the cause and responsibility” of the accident.
On Thursday morning, the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency carried out “search and seizure operations” at the Muan airport where Flight 2216 crashed, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city and the Jeju office. Air in the capital, Seoul.
South Korean authorities said Wednesday that they have extracted initial data from one of the Boeing 737-800’s two black boxes, and that the other will be sent to the United States for analysis due to damage it sustained in the crash.
South Korean officials have launched an inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in operation, as well as a broader investigation of all air operations in the country.
The country’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, said Thursday that immediate action must be taken if inspections reveal any problems with the plane model.
“As there is great public concern about the same model of aircraft involved in the accident, the Ministry of Transportation and relevant organizations should conduct a comprehensive inspection of operations, maintenance, education and training,” Choi said.
Aviation experts have raised a number of possible causes and contributing factors to the disaster, including a bird strike, mechanical failures and the presence of a hardened embankment less than 300 meters from the end of the runway.
The Boeing 737-800 landed upside down on the runway, without landing gear deployed, shortly after the pilot reported a bird strike to air traffic control, before skidding onto a concrete embankment and exploding in flames. .
The crash was the deadliest involving a South Korean airline since a Korean Air Boeing 747 crashed into a Guam hillside in 1997, killing 228 people.
