South Korea orders air safety probe after worst crash in country kills 179
South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok on Monday ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation system as investigators worked to identify victims and find out what caused the deadliest air disaster in the country.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew were killed when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway at Muan International Airport on Sunday, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall. Two crew members were pulled out alive.
The top priority for now is identifying the victims, supporting their families and treating the two survivors, Choi told a disaster management meeting in Seoul.
Monks, members of the public and Choi Sang-mok, South Korea’s acting president, all paid their respects at the memorial in Muan, South Korea, on Monday. The investigation continues into what caused the plane crash that killed 179 people on Sunday.
“Even before the final results are out, we ask that officials transparently disclose the accident investigation process and promptly inform the bereaved families,” he said.
“As soon as the accident recovery is conducted, the transport ministry is requested to conduct an emergency safety inspection of the entire aircraft operation system to prevent recurrence of aircraft accidents.”
As a first step, the transport ministry announced plans to conduct a special inspection of all 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by South Korean airliners beginning on Monday, focusing on the maintenance record of key components.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was trying to land shortly after 9 a.m. local time at the airport in the south of the country.
Investigators are examining possible factors in the crash, including bird strikes, whether any of the aircraft’s control systems were disabled, and the apparent rush by the pilots to attempt a landing soon after declaring an emergency, fire and transportation officials have said.
Experts say many questions remain, including why the plane, powered by two CFM 56-7B26 engines, appeared to be travelling so fast, and why its landing gear did not appear to be down when it skidded down the runway and into a wall.
CFM International is a joint venture between GE Aerospace and France’s Safran.
On Monday, transport ministry officials said as the pilots made a scheduled approach they told air traffic control the aircraft had suffered a bird strike, shortly after the control tower gave them a warning birds were spotted in the vicinity.
Authorities are investigating the cause of a plane crash at Muan airport in South Korea, after it skidded along the runway and burst into flames, killing at least 179 people on board.
The pilots then issued a mayday warning and signalled their intention to abandon the landing and to go around and try again. Shortly afterward, the aircraft came down on the runway in a belly landing, touching down about 1,200 metres along the 2,800-metre runway and sliding into the embankment at the end of the runway.
Officials are investigating what role the localizer antenna, located at the end of the runway to help in landing, played in the crash, including the concrete embankment on which it was standing, transport ministry officials told a media briefing.
“Normally, on an airport with a runway at the end, you don’t have a wall,” said Christian Beckert, a flight safety expert and Lufthansa pilot based in Munich.
“You more have maybe an engineered material arresting system, which lets the airplane sink into the ground a little bit and brakes [it].”
The crash killed mostly local residents who were returning from holidays in Thailand, while two Thai nationals also died.
“I can only accept it, make peace with it,” said Boonchuay Duangmanee, 77, the father of one of the Thai victims. “When I think about it, I remind myself that it was an accident. It’s something that can happen to anyone. So, I’ve come to terms with it because no matter what I do, my daughter won’t come back.”
On Monday morning, investigators were trying to identify some of the last remaining victims, as anguished families waited inside the Muan airport terminal.
Park Han-shin, who lost his brother in the crash, said he was told by authorities that his brother had been identified but has not been able to see his body.
Park called on other victims’ families to unite in responding to the disaster and recovery efforts, citing a 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people. Many relatives of the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster complained it took authorities too long to identify those killed and the cause of that accident.
Flight data recorder recovered
Emergency workers were sifting through wreckage that was nearly completely destroyed when the aircraft was engulfed in an explosion of flames and debris at the regional airport near the country’s winding western coastline.
Transportation ministry officials said the jet’s flight data recorder was recovered but appeared to have sustained some damage on the outside and it was not yet clear whether the data was sufficiently intact to be analyzed.
Shares of Jeju Air hit their lowest level on record on Monday, trading as much as 15.7 per cent lower. Boeing’s U.S.-listed shares fell 4.2 per cent in early trading and were set to lose about $5 billion in market capitalization.
Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civil investigation into the crash and automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States where the plane was designed and built.
The NTSB said it was leading a team of U.S. investigators to help South Korea’s aviation authority. Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration were also taking part.
Choi, who was overseeing recovery efforts and the investigation, became acting leader just three days ago after the country’s president and prime minister were impeached over the imposition of a short-lived martial law.
Published at Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:26:16 +0000
Hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian POWs head home after swap
Ukraine and Russia carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war on Monday, with the two sides bringing home a combined total of more than 300 former captives.
Kyiv brought home 189 former captives, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Defence Ministry said, while the Russian ministry said 150 Russian servicemen were returning home.
The Russian ministry said the captives had been released in Belarus, Moscow’s close ally in the 34-month-old war with Ukraine, and would be transferred to Russia.
Reuters Television footage in Ukraine showed waiting spouses and some servicemen, many wrapped in blue and yellow national flags, weeping openly as they were reunited well after dark outside a building.
Ukrainian prisoners of war reunited with their families in an emotional scene on Monday after being released in a major swap between their country and Russia. One former prisoner said his five-year-old son likely didn’t recognize him as he last saw him when he was two.
A child’s incredulous voice resounded over a mobile telephone: “Dad, is that you?”
“My son is five years old now, the last time I saw him he was two years old,” said Serhii, who was captured by Russian forces at the Azovstal steel mill in the southern port Mariupol, which withstood a siege for nearly three months in 2022.
“That’s why my son probably didn’t recognize me. I used to have a beard and hair. I lost 20 kg.”
For some former captives, the return to freedom involved adjustment.
“Even now I’m holding my hands behind my back, it has become a habit of mine,” said Roman Borshch, 29. “Now I have to get used to being a free person again.”
Video posted by the Russian Defence Ministry showed smiling servicemen on a bus, some calling their families.
“We’ll soon be home. How are the children? How is our boy?” said one man.
“I am overwhelmed by emotion,” said another. “I still can’t quite believe that this has happened, that I am back home, that the ministry made such efforts, that we are remembered and valued.”
Zelenskyy thanked the United Arab Emirates and other partners for facilitating the swap. The United Arab Emirates acknowledged it had helped arrange the exchange.
“The return of our people from Russian captivity is always very good news for each of us. And today is one of such days: our team managed to bring 189 Ukrainians home,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.
There was no immediate explanation for why more Ukrainians than Russians were listed as released; the freed Ukrainians included civilians who had been in Russian captivity.
Zelenskyy said the returning Ukrainians included soldiers, sergeants and officers from different frontline areas, as well as two civilians who had been captured in the southern port of Mariupol.
Besieged steel mill
Denys Prokopenko, commander of the 12th Special Forces “Azov” Brigade that defended the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol before it was captured by Russian forces, said 11 of his men were among those returning. Prokopenko had been brought home in an earlier swap.
The Ukrainian body overseeing Ukrainian swaps said it was the 59th exchange between the two sides since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. That brought to 3,956 the number of Ukrainian detainees returned home.
It said those brought home this year included Ukrainian nationals serving what it described as “so-called sentences” imposed by Russian courts for various offences.
In the last swap in October, also carried out with assistance from the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Ukraine each brought home 95 detainees.
U.S. announces additional aid to Ukraine
The prisoner exchange came as the United States on Monday announced nearly $6 billion US in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kyiv before president-elect Donald Trump takes power.
Biden announced $2.5 billion US in additional security assistance for Ukraine.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the United States has made available $3.4 billion US in additional budget aid to Ukraine, giving the war-torn country critical resources amid intensifying Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine, including about $2.5 billion in security assistance for the war-torn country. With Biden’s tenure ending in just a few weeks, the 82-year-old is using his final days in office to boost aid to Kyiv before president-elect Donald Trump takes power.
“At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden’s announcement includes $1.25 billion US in military aid drawn from U.S. stockpiles and a $1.22 billion US Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package, the final USAI package of Biden’s time in office.
Biden said the new assistance will provide Ukraine with “an immediate influx of capabilities that it continues to use to great effect on the battlefield and longer-term supplies of air defence, artillery, and other critical weapons systems.”
Nearly three years into the war, Washington has committed billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, but it is uncertain if the aid will continue at that pace under Trump, who succeeds Biden on Jan. 20.
Published at Mon, 30 Dec 2024 17:33:37 +0000
