WNAM REPORT: South Korea Tuesday launched across the board inspection of military aircraft as authorities pressed on with their identification process of 179 victims who lost their lives air crash on Sunday.
The order by Defense Ministry to ensure the safety of military aircraft was triggered by deadly crash involving Boeing flight 7C2216 of Jeju Air at Muan International Airport, 288 kilometers (179 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul.
Only two flight attendants were rescued alive while two of 181 passengers belonged to Thailand from where the plane had taken off for South Korea over the weekend.
South Korea has declared seven-day national mourning and authorities have “tentatively established” identity of 174 victims, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.
Separately, investigations continue into what led the pilots to belly-land the plane on the runway which later skidded off and hit an airport wall and exploding into flames with a bang.
While one pilot reportedly said the plane was hit by a bird, the Boeing carrier also suffered a malfunction in all of its three landing gears.
The plane flew in the airspace around the airport, located close to a habitat of migrating birds, before belly-landing.
South Korean investigators were joined on Tuesday by a team of eight members from the US government and aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing.
The flight recorder has been damaged and it may take authorities weeks to decrypt it while the Muan International Airport has reportedly been closed for at least until Jan. 7.
Jeju Air crash triggered a mass cancellation of reservations and bookings by people in South Korea while almost all New Year events were canceled as people walked to memorial sites to pay tributes to the victims.
The tragedy struck South Korea at a time when the country is embroiled in prolonged political instability after President Yoon Suk Yeol imposed a short-lived martial law on Dec. 3.
Yoon has since been impeached and an arrest warrant has been issued against him over charges of insurrection and treason.
Amid national mourning, Yoon’s People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party, which impeached the president, on Tuesday agreed to form a consultative body to discuss the economy and livelihood at the level of parliament.
The consensus was reached as People Power Party has scrambled to run state affairs since the opposition-dominated parliament has gone after Yoon’s aides including acting president and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo who has also been impeached.
