South Korea pulls plane crash report after families protest
The confrontational scene unfolded after officials had earlier briefed the families privately on the latest stage of the investigation. The officials were planning to publicly release some findings from an analysis of the engines on the Boeing 737-800 that crashed Dec. 29, killing 179 of the 181 people on board.
A lawyer for the relatives, who saw the officials' presentation in the private meeting, said the investigators had found no fault with the engines and instead appeared to blame birds — which struck the engines minutes before it made an emergency landing — and the plane's pilots prematurely.
'The families did not get an adequate explanation,' said Pillkyu Hwang, the lawyer, speaking at a lectern in the Muan International Airport where the investigators of the crash had been expected to give their report. 'Depending on how you look at it, it kind of puts all the blame on the dead birds and the dead pilots,' he said, without specifying what details officials gave about the pilots' actions.
'Of course, that may be the outcome of the investigation. But that requires tremendous rigor and very careful wording. And something came out that wasn't careful at all,' Hwang said.
The relatives' delegation said in a statement that the framing of the report could imply that conclusions had been reached when the crash was still under investigation. Many relatives said they feared the report could be misconstrued by the news media as being more definite than it truly was.
The Transport Ministry distributed copies of its report to journalists as they waited in a meeting room for the news conference to begin. Kim Byung-chae, a ministry spokesperson, said the report would not officially be made public until the start of the briefing.
But after the families burst in, shouting objections, the news conference was canceled. Officials took the copies back, declaring that the report had not been issued.
Jeju Air Flight 2216 landed on its belly after reporting a bird strike and issuing an emergency call. The plane overran the runway and struck a concrete berm that housed navigation aids, bursting into a deadly fireball. Only two people — flight attendants at the back of the plane — survived.
The cause of the disaster, the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil, is still being investigated, hampered by the absence of a crucial piece of evidence: Flight recorders, known as black boxes, stopped recording for about the final four minutes of the flight.
Investigators have previously disclosed that bird feathers were found in both engines of the plane, but have not addressed their role in the disaster. The report expected Saturday was about the engines, which were manufactured by CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines.
The start of the news conference was repeatedly postponed as reporters were told investigators were still speaking to the relatives in the nearby terminal building.
After about an hour of postponements, chaos erupted in the room where the reporters waited. Some members of the relatives' delegation who had been speaking to the investigators stormed in, shouting.
'This briefing is not happening. Everyone get out!' one bereaved woman yelled. 'They've just blamed it all on the pilots!' a man cried out.
Officials from the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, dressed in black uniforms, entered the room. One began speaking into the microphone, saying over the shouting relatives that he was going to start the news conference. A group of relatives swiftly pushed him out of the room.
Kim, the ministry spokesperson, said that the news conference was canceled and that investigators would consult further with the relatives. The report about the engine analysis could be rescheduled, he added.
Kim Yu-jin, president of the relatives' delegation, said the families did not disagree with the report's findings but felt the presentation was unsatisfactory.
'When the investigators take a position, it should be accompanied by many documents that support their position and convince the bereaved family that their conclusions are inevitable,' she told reporters. 'But we were only given their conclusions and told they couldn't disclose the process or evidence that led them to those findings.'
In the families' meeting with officials, she said the delegation had requested the original findings of the analysis of the engine, which was conducted by U.S., French and South Korean investigators in France, where Safran, one of the engine manufacturers, is based.
'We have repeatedly asked them to be careful about these disclosures because the way that the results of the investigation are communicated can have an impact on the compensation that families receive,' she told reporters. 'What we heard today did not take into account those things.'
This article originally appeared in
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The company said more loudspeakers were installed on airport premises after the meeting Dec. 19. But like most smaller airports in South Korea, Muan still lacked thermal imaging cameras and bird detection radar used to alert air traffic controllers and pilots to the presence of birds, according to the government. Airports everywhere are advised to have such measures in place, according to guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency that sets global standards for the aviation industry. 'The regulations are there, but people have been breaking them without any repercussions,' says Dr. Nial Moores, the national director of Birds Korea, a bird conservation group. 'They were warned about the risk of a bird strike,' he added. 'How come nothing has changed?' In addition to failing to follow international guidelines, the airport's operators also breached domestic safety regulations. 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In addition, at least one person required to attend the meeting of the bird strike prevention committee had missed the Dec. 19 meeting, an official from the Korea Airports Corp. acknowledged at the parliamentary hearing. The state-owned company operates almost all of South Korea's airports, including the one in Muan. 'It's a shame that they have known about their shortcomings for years, but nothing has been done to improve,' said Kwon Hyang-Yup, an opposition lawmaker who obtained the bird safety committee report. While airplane strikes with wildlife are not uncommon, most don't cause planes to crash. Out of nearly 20,000 wildlife strikes in the United States in 2023, about 4% caused damage to the plane. Since the crash, South Korea's government has pledged 247 billion won (about $170 million) over three years to improve bird-strike prevention measures at all the country's airports. Planned measures include installing bird detection devices and implementing a national radar model to alert people in control towers, patrollers on the ground, and pilots to the presence of birds. Some experts ask whether the Muan airport should have been built at all because of the abundance of birds in the wetlands surrounding it. The airport has at least twice reported the highest number of bird strikes out of the country's 15 airports over the past five years, with six cases in 2024, up from two the previous year. Its rate of bird strikes was 10 times that of Incheon International Airport, the nation's largest, according to data released by Kwon, the lawmaker. Incheon, which also lies close to bird habitats, has identified almost 100 species of birds in its vicinity. It has four thermal imaging cameras, two devices that emit bird-repelling noises, and 48 workers assigned to bird control, according to an airport representative. Ju Yung-Ki, a researcher and conservationist who has visited the Muan area repeatedly in recent years, was working in his office Dec. 29 when he learned about the plane crash. 'I had always thought there was a risk of a bird strike there,' said Ju, the director of the Ecoculture Institute. Ju had flown in and out of the Muan airport several times, despite his concerns. After hearing news of the crash, he traveled about 70 miles from his home in Jeonju, northeast of Muan, to a lake near the airport and arrived about 4:30 p.m. He could see the charred tail of the plane and the wreckage at the end of the runway. 'It was horrific,' he said, adding that he shed tears thinking about the people who had died. As that afternoon progressed, he also located flocks of up to 300,000 Baikal teals about 18 miles from the airport. They fly at least that distance to search for food, and he observed with binoculars and a telescope that the airport was in their daily flight path. The Baikal teal isn't particularly big, at about 16 inches long with an 8-inch wingspan. But the ducks move in large, agile flocks that can reach as many as 1 million in number, said Moores of Birds Korea. They breed in Siberia and arrive on the southwestern coast of South Korea in October and stay through early March. Muan, almost 200 miles south of Seoul, lies among the marshy grasslands and reservoirs across the southwestern peninsula, where the ducks and other species of birds roost in pockets of calm water. Local business owners said that flocks of birds were most often seen at a country club near the airport, about 4 miles away. An enforcement regulation attached to South Korea's Airport Facilities Act in 2017 stipulates that an airport cannot be built within 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) of a bird sanctuary or game reserve. But, according to the nation's environment ministry, there is only one such sanctuary in Muan, and that lies about 12 miles from the airport. Conservationists say the reality is different. They say the term sanctuary — classified as a collective habitat and breeding ground for endangered wildlife — ignores many of the region's populous bird habitats. A map by the Korean Office of Civil Aviation identifies four areas surrounding the Muan airport where birds feed and roost. Some of those spots are as close as a little over a mile from the airport. On one morning in February, hundreds of birds flew overhead at around this distance. Larger birds flew in a 'V' formation, while smaller ones wove in and out in an aerial dance. 'It's not a matter of whether the Muan International Airport is near a sanctuary or not,' Ju said. 'The fact is that there are a lot of birds that live there.' The decision on whether an area is a sanctuary lies with the mayor or governor, according to South Korea's Wildlife Protection and Management Act. There are about 400 of these protected areas nationwide, according to the Ministry of Environment. Experts say that no matter how many preventive efforts are undertaken, bird strikes cannot be eliminated. 'The obvious thing is not to build an airport where there are a lot of birds,' said Keith Mackey, an American aviation expert and safety consultant based in Ocala, Florida. Other methods that could be deployed to deter birds include using brightly colored paint on the runway and drones to disperse nearby flocks, Mackey said. Muan's airport has been closed since the Dec. 29 crash and will not resume commercial flights until April 18 at the earliest. The airport recently resumed medical and training flights. South Korea has ambitious plans to build 10 airports over the next few decades in response to booming regional demand for increased overseas travel. Several will also be along the western coastline. One is of particular concern to conservationists: in Saemangeum, about 65 miles north of Muan. The proposed airport, which is scheduled to open in 2029, lies within 4 miles of the Seocheon Tidal Flat, a UNESCO Heritage Site that is home to dozens of nationally protected wildlife species including birds, according to Kim Nahee, an activist who is protesting against the construction of the new airport. Officials in North Jeolla province, where Saemangeum is located, said 'there was no infrastructure that would disturb the flight path of birds,' citing an analysis it had received from the government environmental agency. 'They shouldn't have built the Muan International Airport where they did,' Kim said. 'This can't happen again.' This article originally appeared in
