South Korean airline Jeju Air has pledged to restore passenger confidence by tightening safety measures, as announced by the budget carrier’s CEO at a press conference. A crash involving one of Jeju Air’s aircraft resulted in the deaths of 179 of the 181 people on board last weekend.
The passenger plane accident occurred on Sunday around 09:00 local time. As the aircraft was landing in Muan, South Korea, after a five-hour flight from Bangkok, Thailand, the landing gear of the Boeing 737-800 failed to deploy.
The plane skidded at high speed, crashed into a wall, and caught fire. Only two crew members, located in the tail of the aircraft, survived.
According to CEO Kim E-Bae, no issues were reported during the pre-departure inspection of the plane. He stated that “Jeju Air follows standard procedures and a plane cannot take off unless it is declared safe.” The South Korean Ministry of Transport reported that 174 of the 179 crash victims have been identified, with the first four bodies returned to their families.
Rescuers found the black box containing flight data and cockpit voice recordings at the crash site. The exterior of the flight data recorder was damaged, making data retrieval impossible.
“Experts are working hard to recover the data from the black box,” said the Ministry of Transport.
Source: NOS