It was the worst aviation catastrophe on the South Korean soil. Now, the Muan International Airport Terminal serves as a community center for mourning relatives of the 179 people who died in the accident. Families meet here to speak, eat together – some remain even during the night in the tents.
It is in this cavernous building in southwest South Korea that families expected Anxiously for the news after Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 accidental December 29. Then there were tears and explosions of anger while the civil servants periodically read the names of the dead, much identified by DNA tests.
“We are a family now,” said son Joo-Taek, who lost his son in the accident and was one of 20 people who sat around a row of folding tables that held water and snacks a recent Saturday. “People here understand what others just can’t.”
Recently, the speech between certain mourning families turned to action: they want to discover what caused the accident. The jet – mainly carrying vacationers to the house of end -of -year trip to Thailand – fading the belly on the track and accelerated until it strikes a concrete bert and exploded in flames, leaving only two survivors.
Relatives of people killed say they are unhappy with the information net of civil servants and the refusal to publish files, including transcriptions of the control tower. They want to know more about the reports of a bird shot a few minutes before landing, how the jet fell without its landing gear, and why the beard it struck was not designed to give in.
In desperation, some have turned to books and videos to find out more about air security, including how flight recorders, air controllers, localizers and jet engines. They also examine the design of the airport.
“The first priority of families is to get the truth,” said son Ha-Yang, Mr. Son’s daughter at the airport where his brother and girlfriend were killed. “Otherwise, we only count on investigators, who often use jargon.”
Ms. Son, who took about three months off from her work in Seoul, said that she felt the need to read Boeing manuals and aviation regulations, and had studied the terms that had said nothing for her: CVR, FDR,, Icao She was in contact with other parents who also said they wanted to know more about what could have been wrong.
The South Korean authorities said that he could take more than a year to finish the investigation, which had been confronted obstacles who have frustrated families. Among them: the jet flight recorders have ceased to record for the last four minutes of the flight.
“Families want to know why their loved ones died,” said Park Cheol, a lawyer for families. “They also believe that as a student, they make an effort for those who died.”
Some relatives challenged the officials during the accident meetings. They say they fear that there are not enough people investigating the cause, compared to the cases in the United States. The authorities also did not access their request to release communications from the control tower at the time of the accident.
The South Korea Ministry of Transport said in a statement that the investigation organization was in talks with the authorities to increase the number of investigators. The ministry also planned to provide a transcription of air traffic control communications, although they were generally not published to the public, he said.
Kim Yu-Jin has watched YouTube videos and read books on aviation disasters since her parents and brother died in the accident. She examined the safety characteristics that planes have during emergency landing.
At Mrs. Kim’s Cafe, in the county of southern Jangheung, his mother, Jung Sun-Suk, was Barista and helped pack the deliveries. His father, Kim Deok-Won, helped transport strawberries and milk and had planned to extend their 350 square foot store.
She said her parents also helped to raise her four children. After the accident, she temporarily closed the coffee to focus on her children and cope with sorrow.
“Everything has the touch of my parents,” she said. “There are traces everywhere.”
After losing his son and daughter-in-law, Lee Jung-Keun concentrated his personal research on a specific factor: concrete berth. Most airports in the world do not have Similar structures So close to the tracks, and when they do it, they are made of more fragile materials intended to separate the impact, experts said.
Mr. Lee has traveled the Internet to obtain information on the Bert and has become convinced that he was the largest factor in the high number of deaths.
“If it was not for the Bert, almost everyone would have survived,” he said during a visit to the airport with his wife, Lee Mi-Jung.
Her son, Jae-Hyeok, and the young man’s wife, Tae Ari, shared the love of fishing and married in 2020. They planned to start a family, and the private mathematics academy of Ms. Tae in the Southwest County of Haenam is fine, said Ms. Lee.
The couple had not initially planned to visit Thailand. But a last minute offer from a travel agency coincided with their wedding anniversary, said Mr. Lee.
Coming to the airport is a way for some families to find a feeling of community when their homes are now defined by absence. Others remain away from the airport, fearing that memories be too painful or limited by work.
The accident left Lee Bong-Kyung with a naval project in difficulty in the southwest city of Mokpo which was founded by his father in 2015. Sales have dropped in recent years and Mr. Lee said that it was the work ethics of his father who maintained the company in life: “Everything he knew was work,” he said.
When Mr. Lee started working at the shipyard about six years ago, it gave his father more time. The elder Mr. Lee went to Bangkok with a group of childhood friends. His death left his son crushed personally and professionally.
“We also have a lot of debts and loans to pay, so I thought of abandoning several times,” he said.
The experience of many bereaved families – isolation of friends and colleagues, solidarity with parents of other victims and distrust of government – echoes the consequences of other disasters in South Korea, including Except for the 2014 Sewol Ferry and a Crust of the crowd in Seoul in 2022.
Lee Jeong-Bok and his wife, Jeong Hyeon-Kyeong, cried another young victim. Their daughter, Min-Ju, died after making a trip with a high school friend. She was in her second year in her first job outside the university.
Since the crash, Ms. Lee’s other three children help their parents more, such as dishes. “They have matured quickly,” she said.
Lee said he and his wife had planned to stay at the airport until the cause of the accident was revealed. “The investigation must be deepened and objective,” he said. “There must be responsibility and consequences.”
Once the investigation is completed, families will plan to deposit prosecution to keep responsible for the responsible accident, said Jung Yu-Chan, families spokesperson.
At the airport a recent Saturday, Jo half young cried a whole family that had perished on the jet. The sister of Mrs. Jo Mi-Ji was on board with her daughter, the girl’s husband and their two children.
Ms. Jo said the father of children, Na Byung-Hwa, had taken his family to Bangkok for a triple celebration: he had recently been promoted to his work in an agricultural cooperative, his wedding anniversary was approaching and that her mother-in-law had recently his 60th anniversary.
“Who else will remember this family?” Ms. Jo asked.
His brother, Jo Hyo-Son, said that he and his sister had stayed at the airport almost every day since the accident, finding comfort in their experience shared with other families.
“It is only here that we can cry, only here we can laugh,” he said. “We don’t leave until the truth is said.”
