South Korean police raided the offices of the Jeju water and the operator of Muan International Airport on Thursday while investigating the fatal crash at a Boeing 737-800 which killed 179 people.
The plane was flying 181 passengers and a crew from Thailand to South Korea on Sunday when they issued a mayday call and landed before crashing into an obstacle, killing all on board but two attendants aircraft.
Authorities on Thursday conducted search and seizure operations at Muan airport where Flight 2216 crashed, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city, and a Jeju Air office in the capital Seoul, police said.
The head of Jeju Air, Kim E-bae, is also banned from leaving the country while the investigation continues, police said separately.
“The police intend to quickly and rigorously determine the cause and responsibility for this accident in accordance with the law and principles,” the police said in a statement sent to AFP.
At Muan airport on Thursday, soldiers, police and white-collar investigators were still combing the crash site, as orange-robed monks held prayer rituals nearby.
Inside the airport, the stairs were covered with colorful post-it notes left by mourners.
“Honey, I miss you so much,” one of them said.
“Though you face lonely and painful times in death, may you now rise like a butterfly,” read another.
Kim Hong-Ji / REUTERS
Relatives also left flowers and food near the crash site including tteokguk – a rice cake soup traditionally enjoyed by South Koreans on New Year's Day – as they said goodbye, many in tears.
Star chefs who appeared in Netflix's megahit cooking competition “Culinary Class Wars”, including Ahn Yu-seong, joined volunteers in Muan this week to prepare food for the families of the victims.
And people across the country were pre-paying for coffee at the airport cafe so families of victims, who have been camping out in the lounge since Sunday, waiting for news, free drink.
More bodies were released Thursday to families to prepare for funerals, the land ministry said.
Officials initially identified a bird strike as a possible cause of the crash, and have since said that the investigator was also investigating the location of a concrete barrier at the end of the runway.
Dramatic video showed the plane crashing into him before bursting into flames.
Yonhap said the Muan airport warrant was approved on allegations of professional negligence leading to death, citing officials.
“Police are receiving evidence related to the legitimacy of the airport agent,” Yonhap said, referring to the concrete wall at the end of the runway that houses the antenna area.
They are also seeking records of communications between the control tower and the pilot shortly before the plane crash, he said.
Airports across the country were being searched to check for other similar occupiers, the land ministry said in a statement.
Some experts have said that the accident might not have been so deadly if it had not been for the concrete installation.
“The key to solving this mystery”
South Korea has also announced that it will inspect all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the carrier, with a focus on the landing gear, which appears to have malfunctioned during the Sunday accident.
South Korea's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, said Thursday that “immediate action” must be taken if the inspection finds any problems with the aircraft model.
Authorities have previously said that 101 aircraft of the same model were operated by six different airlines.
“Since the public is very concerned about the same model of aircraft that was involved in the accident, the Ministry of Transportation and relevant agencies must thoroughly investigate the maintenance of operations, education and training,” Choi said Thursday.
The accident is the worst aviation accident on South Korean soil.
Kim Hong-Ji / REUTERS
South Korean authorities have completed the first data extraction for the cockpit voice recorder, but the flight data recorder was damaged and was to be sent to the United States for analysis , officials said Wednesday.
Investigators say it was impossible to decode the damaged flight data record locally, which is missing a crucial connector, BBC News reported.
“I think the cockpit voice recorder, if they are able to read that out, will be critical to solving this mystery,” former NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt told CBS News.
Jeju Air said the crash was not due to “any maintenance issues,” according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, and aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas to BBC News that South Korean airlines were considered to be largely following “industry best practices” and that the airline and Jeju Air had “an excellent safety record”.
