South Korea’s transport minister announced on Tuesday his intention to step down from his post over the fatal plane crash at Muan International Airport last month.
Jeju Air 7C2216, which departed Bangkok, Thailand, for the southwestern South Korean city of Muan on Dec. 29, 2024, belly-landed, overshot the runway, and hit an embankment before bursting into flames in a catastrophic incident that resulted in the deaths of 179 on board the Boeing 737.
“I feel heavy responsibility for this disaster,” Park Sang-woo, minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, told a press briefing, adding that he will find the right moment to step down after addressing the current situation.
The transport ministry also said it will move quickly to improve the safety of airport landing systems, which experts have said contributed to the disaster.
Flight safety experts have said the embankment—designed to prop up the “localizer” antenna that is supposed to aid pilots in landings during bad visibility—was too rigid and too near to the end of the runway.
Deputy Transport Minister for Civil Aviation Joo Jong-wan acknowledged that safety measures were insufficient when the embankment was built but said they were in line with Korean regulations and those in place abroad.
Police are now investigating the embankment’s construction, Joo said, after officers last week raided Jeju Air’s offices and the operator of Muan International Airport as part of their probe into the crash.
Lead investigator Lee Seung-yeol said that feathers had been discovered on one of the engines recovered from the crash, adding that footage shows one of the engines had experienced a bird strike, meaning birds had been sucked into its jet.
On Monday, two Korean investigators left for the United States to recover and analyze a flight data recorder, also known as a black box, which was damaged in the crash, with the assistance of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
The flight data recorder, along with the cockpit voice recorder, are the two black boxes that contain vital information about the lead-up to the crash and the crash itself.
Lee said it would take three days to extract the files from the black box, followed by two additional days to conduct a preliminary analysis of basic information, such as whether one or two engines failed.
It remains unclear why the plane failed to deploy its landing gear and what exactly prompted the pilot to seemingly rush into a second landing attempt after telling air traffic control the aircraft had incurred a bird strike and declaring an emergency.
According to experts, bird strikes do not typically cause landing gear malfunctions.
Investigators on Saturday compiled the complete transcript from the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of the Jeju plane but have yet to make a decision on whether it will be released to the public.
Muan International Airport had been due to reopen on Tuesday, but the government has extended its closure until Jan. 14, citing the ongoing crash investigation.
The transport ministry has inspected all 101 Boeing 737-800s operated by South Korea’s airlines as part of the probe into the nation’s worst aviation disaster.
The ministry said it will look at engines, maintenance records, and landing gear on all those jets, adding that airlines could find their operations suspended if serious violations are found.
Investigators are also analyzing data retrieved from 107 cellular phones recovered from the crash site, including text messages, for clues on what happened leading up to the crash, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
