Families of Jeju Air crash victims file complaint against South Korean minister and 14 others
Families of the victims of the Jeju Air crash in South Korea have filed a complaint against 15 people they believe to be responsible for last December's disaster that killed all but two of the 181 people on board.
The country's transport minister and the airline chief are reportedly among the people named in the complaint.
Police and government officials have already been investigating the Jeju Air crash, so the complaint is largely seen as a symbolic step calling for a swifter and more thorough probe. The bereaved families complained a lack of meaningful progress in efforts to determine what caused the disaster and who is responsible.
About 72 bereaved relatives submitted the complaint to the Jeonnam Provincial Police agency in southern South Korea on Tuesday, according to their lawyers and police.
The 15 people cited in the complaint include the transport minister, Jeju Air's president and airline officials handling maintenance and safety issues, along with officials at Muan International Airport who are responsible for preventing bird strikes, air traffic control and facility management, according to a statement from a lawyers' group supporting the relatives.
'Four months after the disaster, we can't help feeling deep anger and despair over the fact that there has been little progress' in the investigation, Kim Dae Hye, a bereaved family member, said in the statement.
Lawyer Lee So Ah said Wednesday the complaint would formally require police to brief bereaved families of their investigation, though police have so far only voluntarily done so.
The Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air skidded off the runway at the Muan airport on 29 December after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames.
Authorities have since said they found traces of a bird strike in the plane's engines and that the plane's two black boxes stopped recording about 4 minutes before the crash. Many analysts said the concrete structure, which housed a set of antennas called a localizer that guides aircraft during landings, should have been built with lighter materials that could break more easily upon impact.
South Korean aviation authorities were reportedly warned about a high risk of bird strikes near the Muan international airport, which prompted a dozen officials to hold a review meeting about 10 days before the fatal incident. At that meeting of the bird strike prevention committee late last year, an official from a national aviation training institute flagged that incoming planes regularly encountered large flocks of birds along the coast.
So far, no exact cause of the crash has been announced and no one has been prosecuted. The crash was the country's deadliest aviation disaster since 1997.
Jeonnam Provincial Police agency officials said they've been investigating the accident. They suggested a complex incident like the Jeju Air crash would require a lengthy investigation but declined to say when they expect to wrap up their probe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Gun found in new Madeleine McCann search ‘has not been ruled out as a game-changer' amid race against time to charge prime suspect Christian Bruekner
The gun retrieved from a well drained by firefighters last week during fresh Madeleine McCann searches on the Algarve has not been ruled out as a game changer by investigators. Further details emerged hours after German prosecutors described the co-operation with Portuguese police as 'excellent and very constructive' as authorities in both countries continue to try to build up a case against suspect Christian Brueckner ahead of his scheduled release from prison in September. The type of gun discovered during the three-day search operation last week near Brueckner's former ramshackle cottage home close to the Algarve resort where Madeleine vanished on May 3 2007, has not yet been revealed, but well-placed sources said today it was a 6.35 calibre. Typically these types of guns are small, pocket-sized, semi-automatic pistols used for self-defence or target shooting, but can be airguns. Portuguese daily Correio da Manha reported yesterday it was unlikely to be a 'lethal weapon' although tests are understood to be ongoing. It has not yet been ruled out as a potential game-changer in the 'race against time' to charge Brueckner over Madeleine's disappearance before he finishes the seven-year prison sentence he is currently serving for the 2005 rape of an American woman. Another gun said to have been found during last week's searches has been ruled out. It is believed to be more than 50 years old and has been described by Portuguese sources as a 'rusting relic.' The same well-placed sources confirmed yesterday forensic analysis of fragments of bones and adult clothing also unearthed last week would take place at a specialist police lab in Lisbon and not in Germany as initially reported. No samples of any kind have been sent back to Germany despite reports to the contrary, the insiders said. German forensic officers have been offered the opportunity of being present at the tests, although it was unclear today if they had accepted the invite. They were shown some of the bones that were unearthed, thought to be animal bones, in a video-conferencing session but were 'unable to come to any real conclusions about exactly what they were'. German prosecutors said yesterday in their only official statement so far since wells, ruins and water tanks across a 120-acre area in Atalaia between the Algarve towns of Praia and Luz and Lagos were inspected: 'The search operation conducted in Portugal last week has been completed as planned. 'No information can be provided at this time regarding the results of the investigation. 'Our sincere thanks go to all police officers involved in the search. 'The co-operation between the Portuguese police and the Federal Criminal Police Office was excellent and very constructive. 'We don't want to say anymore at the moment.' Luis Neves, the National Director of the Policia Judiciaria police force which in Portugal has been the lead police force in the hunt for Madeleine and whose officers worked along German counterparts at last week's search, insisted last Friday it had 'not been in vain' despite the apparent lack of results. He said: 'Nothing is in vain, not least because doors are being closed'. At the last Madeleine McCann search in Portugal just over two years ago, when the Arade Dam a 40-minute drive from Praia da Luz was combed, German police who requested the operation did take back home with them samples believed to be mainly soil samples. The remote dam was described at the time as Brueckner's 'little paradise.' The May 2023 dam searches were the first major searches in Portugal for Madeleine McCann in nine years following an earlier June 2014 operation when British police were given permission to do digs in Praia da Luz that involved sniffer dogs trained in detecting bodies and ground-penetrating radar. Those Scotland Yard digs were linked to the leading UK police theory at the time Madeleine died during a break-in while her parents were eating tapas nearby with friends, and burglars dumped her body. They also failed to produce any evidence pointing to the missing youngster's whereabouts. In a smaller operation in July 2020 Portuguese police and firefighters searched three wells for Madeleine's body but failed to find any trace of her. Last Friday Correio da Manha claimed German prosecutors had refused to probe a couple suspected of running over Madeleine McCann in a drink-drive accident. Portuguese authorities demanded an investigation into a British man and his German wife after his UK-based sister tipped off cops in 2018 she thought he could be covering up a dark secret about Maddie's disappearance, the newspaper reported. But it said German authorities rejected a Portuguese request to use an undercover police officer with a fake identity to try to befriend the female suspect and firm up their suspicions she was driving a car that hit Madeleine while under the influence of alcohol. There has so far been no official response from German, Portuguese or UK police to the claims. Convicted 48-year-old paedophile Brueckner denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. His earliest possible prison release date is September 17 - though his lawyer said he would have to pay £1,300 in outstanding fines from a series of motor offences to leave then.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Man aged in his 60s arrested on suspicion of murder of Annie McCarrick
A man aged in his 60s has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Annie McCarrick, who went missing in Dublin more than 30 years ago. The man is being detained at a Dublin Garda station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. A house and garden in Clondalkin, in west Dublin, is to be technically and forensically examined as part of the investigation. Gardai said the current residents of the home are not connected with Ms McCarrick or her disappearance. Ms McCarrick was 26 when she went missing on March 26 1993. Originally from Long Island in New York, she had moved to Ireland to live permanently in January 1993 and was staying in rental accommodation at St Catherine's Court in Sandymount with two other tenants when she went missing two months later. On the day she went missing, Ms McCarrick spoke to both her flatmates before they left separately to travel home for the weekend. She had made arrangements with friends to have dinner in the apartment the following day, and was making plans for her mother Nancy's visit to Ireland in the following days. Ms McCarrick was not at home on March 27 when her friends called for dinner as invited, and had not turned up for work on Saturday or Sunday morning. A friend called to her apartment that Sunday evening and spoke with Annie's two flatmates. Groceries that had been purchased by Ms McCarrick in Quinnsworth on Sandymount Road on Friday morning had been left unpacked in shopping bags. A receipt in the shopping bags confirmed the date and time of purchase as March 26 1993 at 11.02am, which is the last confirmed activity of Ms McCarrick. Ms McCarrick was reported missing by a friend at Irishtown Garda Station on the Sunday evening, which was confirmed by her mother Nancy when she arrived in Dublin on March 30, 1993. In March 2023, gardai announced the missing person inquiry has been upgraded to a murder investigation and made a public appeal for information. This is the first arrest made in the case. The family of Ms McCarrick are being fully updated in relation to this investigation, gardai said.
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Lady Brittan attacks Met Police for dropping sex case review
Lord Brittan's widow has criticised the Metropolitan Police for dropping an investigation into an officer's handling of the paedophile claims against her husband. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said last week it had stopped the investigation into Steve Rodhouse, the former Met deputy assistant commissioner, after a 'large volume of relevant material was recently disclosed to the IOPC by the Metropolitan Police'. Mr Rodhouse was due to face a disciplinary hearing for potentially breaching police professional standards of behaviour for honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct. It followed the Met's 16-month Operation Midland into fake claims of a VIP paedophile ring by fantasist Carl Beech, which saw raids on the homes of Lord Brittan, as well as Lord Bramall, a D-Day veteran, and Harvey Proctor, the ex-Tory MP. Beech was later jailed for 18 years for what a judge called 'cruel and callous' lies. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Lady Brittan said she had hoped the investigation would bring a sense of 'closure'. She said: 'My husband was a high-profile individual, but at every level of society, there are people who are falsely accused, and for them (also) it's the ruining of reputation, it's the anxiety that goes with it. 'I feel that it would have at least put a closure, to use that odd word, on the whole episode if somebody had been held to account, either for misconduct, or even for incompetence.' The force was heavily criticised for believing Beech too readily despite inconsistencies in his evidence, including naming witnesses who did not exist. The allegations against Mr Rodhouse had centred around comments made to the media in March 2016 concerning his beliefs about the honesty of two witnesses to Operation Midland, a Met investigation into allegations of non-recent sexual abuse. But the IOPC said there was 'no evidence' within the material provided from the Met that there was 'any inappropriate motivation in Mr Rodhouse's comments to the media' or that 'supports that he made those remarks during Sir Richard's review'. Mr Rodhouse said the allegations made against him were 'ill-founded and incorrect'. Mr Proctor said he was 'appalled' by the 'disgraceful decision' not to proceed, adding that he would be writing to Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police commissioner, to 'demand a meeting and an explanation'. Lady Brittan said she felt her husband's legacy had been permanently tarnished, telling the BBC: 'What I really feel very sorry about is the fact that my husband was a great public servant. 'When he died, his obituaries referred to all of this.'
