Latest news with #victims families
Free Malaysia Today
23-07-2025
- Free Malaysia Today
Jeju Air crash families denounce report blaming pilot error
The final investigation report on the Jeju Air flight crash is planned to be released in June next year. (EPA Images pic) SEOUL : The families of victims of South Korea's deadliest plane crash on home soil have denounced a government report which blamed the disaster on pilot error, a representative told AFP Tuesday. The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to South Korea's southwest on Dec 29 last year but ended up belly-landing at Muan airport and exploding in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier, killing 179 people. South Korea's land ministry told AFP it had planned to release the partial findings of the investigation into the crash at the weekend but called off a briefing and withheld the report after the families objected, claiming it could be misleading. The report said a bird strike damaged the plane's right engine, but the pilot then mistakenly shut down the left engine instead, a representative for the families, who saw the report, told AFP. The error resulted in a total power loss and a failure of the landing gear system, they said. The pilot said, 'Let's shut down engine number 2 (the right engine),' but the flight data recorder showed that actually it was the left engine that was shut down, according to the report. 'No one has directly seen or heard the cockpit voice recorder or the flight data recorder,' Kim Youn-mi, a representative of the victims' families, told AFP. 'We weren't given any proper explanation about those things. We need to hear that to know. We have the right,' she added. The Jeju Air pilots' union also criticised the report, saying it was 'strongly angered' by the findings and would 'firmly reject the malicious attempt to shift blame onto the pilot'. The findings were part of an ongoing probe by South Korean and US investigators, who are still investigating the cause of the disaster. A bird strike – feathers and bloodstains were found in both engines – a faulty landing gear and the runway barrier are among the possible issues. The final report is planned to be released in June next year.
BBC News
21-07-2025
- BBC News
Jeju Air crash: Victims' families decry report blaming pilot error
An investigation into last December's Jeju Air plane crash has found that the aircraft's pilot mistakenly shut the wrong engine, local media release of the report, scheduled for over the weekend, has been delayed after heated protests from families of the families had been briefed on the findings earlier, and accused investigators of pinning the blame on the pilot while ignoring other contributing but two of the 181 people on board the Jeju Air plane died after the aircraft crashed into a barrier and burst into flames while landing at Muan International Airport - the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil. On the morning of 29 December, the pilots of Jeju Air Flight 2216 reported a bird strike and made a mayday call as the plane approached the pilots then tried to land from the opposite direction. Video footage showed the plane making a belly landing - without its landing gear deployed - on the tarmac and skidding into a concrete aircraft's two engines were sent to France in March for analysis. The recent findings from South Korea's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board found that the pilot had turned off the left engine - which had no defects - instead of the right engine, which was more severely damaged by the bird families of the victims said that the report did not mention the concrete barrier at the end of the runway, which they argued is what made the accident so devastating."The bereaved families seek a fair and transparent investigation into the accident," they said in a statement, urging investigators to conduct a press briefing "only after a full and careful examination has been completed".In a statement on Sunday, the Jeju Air pilots' union similarly criticised the recent findings for allegedly focusing on pilots' misjudgement while downplaying other contributing factors.A source with knowledge of the probe, however, told Reuters that investigators would not change their findings as they had "clear evidence and backup data".Following the crash, South Korea's transport ministry said in January that it would remove concrete barriers at seven May, families of the victims lodged a criminal complaint against Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae, citing professional negligence. Mr Kim is among 24 people being investigated by the police over their role in the accident.
