Jeju Air flight disaster...What is the current situation and the question?

■ Host: Anchor Chung Chae-woon, anchor Cho Ye-jin, anchor
■ Starring: Yang Si-chang, social affairs reporter

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News Special] when quoting.

[Anchor]
A Jeju Air passenger plane carrying 181 passengers and others crashed into the outer wall of the airport and exploded during an emergency landing. Except for the two rescued, 179 victims of the accident were finally counted. Let's talk in detail with reporter Yang Si-chang. Please come in. An accident that broke the hearts of the whole nation occurred. The rescue operation was completed overnight, right?

[Reporter]
It's around 9 o'clock last night. Rescue authorities, including the National Fire Agency, officially announced that they had recovered 179 deaths at the scene of the Muan Airport accident. There were a total of 181 passengers on the plane, including 175 passengers and six crew members, and two cabin crew members were rescued near the tail of the plane at the beginning of the search. Unfortunately, there were no additional survivors. The number of victims was 179, which is the final tally. It is believed to be the largest damage among aircraft accidents in Korea. As of 4:26 a.m., a total of 139 people were identified. Rescue officials say they are identifying people who have not been identified through fingerprints by comparing them with their family DNA.

[Anchor]
I hope those who have not yet been identified will hear from you soon. How is the health of the rescued crew?

[Reporter]
The rescued male flight attendant held a briefing yesterday at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, where he was transferred. The thoracic vertebrae and ribs were fractured, and the intensive care unit said it was being monitored intensively due to the possibility of aftereffects. The man said, "I woke up and found that he was rescued." The hospital explained that it did not ask specific questions about the accident situation because it judged that it would not help the recovery. A female flight attendant is also said to have injured her head and said it seemed like the plane was crashing with a sudden explosive roar. We have to see if these statements will help us identify the cause of the accident.

[Anchor]
Most of the passengers on the plane are residents of Gwangju and Jeollanam-do, right?

[Reporter]
That's right. Gwangju Metropolitan City has the largest number of citizens with 81, Jeollanam-do Province has 76, 18 residents including other local residents and Thais, and 6 crew members. Among them were civil servants, a total of 13 people, including 5 from the Jeollanam-do Office of Education and 3 from Hwasun-gun. It was found that there were also three students in Jeollanam-do. The Jeollanam-do Office of Education is investigating whether there are no students on board.

[Anchor]
How's the accident scene going now?

[Reporter]
As I told you, the recovery of the victims has been completed, but field activities continue. The work is underway to find valuables such as identification cards that can help identify them. The fire department said it was searching the crew in three groups. The day will soon be bright, but the field training activities will continue. After that, a joint inspection of related organizations is expected to take place, but the time has not yet been set.

[Anchor]
Let's look at the accident from the beginning again.

[Reporter] The
accident occurred around 9 a.m. yesterday. If you reorganize it by time zone. Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 departed from Bangkok at around 1:30 a.m. yesterday. The plane, which arrived over Muan Airport at 8:54 p.m., attempted the first landing. But then, for some reason, the plane flew back onto the runway without landing normally. And three minutes later, at 8:57 p.m., the airport control tower sent a warning to the plane about bird activity. About two minutes later, at 8:59, the pilot notified Mayday of an urgent call for rescue and immediately attempted to land the fuselage. As you all know, a landing is a landing gear, that is, a gas body without lowering the wheels. At this time, as you can see on the screen, the deceleration was not done properly, and after going 300 meters away from the runway, it crashed into the outer wall of the airport at 9:03 and was engulfed in flames.

[Anchor]
Since you reconstruct the case like this, I can see how urgent the situation at that time is. There are some questions. Looking one by one, first, just before landing, the control tower warned of a possible bird collision. Do you think the bird collision was the primary cause?

[Reporter]
So far, many possibilities seem to be one of them. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which is in charge of the accident, said it warned of bird activity at the control tower of Muan Airport at 8:59 p.m., about four minutes before the accident. And the screen captured by nearby CCTV also shows a white object falling from one engine. There were several sightings at the scene that the aircraft passed through the flock of birds. Experts believe that birds can cause engine damage if they are sucked into the engine, which can lead to engine shutdowns or, in severe cases, explosions. However, it is necessary to confirm whether there was a real bird collision and how it would have affected the aircraft.

[Anchor]
However, even if a plane has two engines, and one engine had a tidal current collision, some say that the other engine should be running, or that both engines could have had problems.

[Reporter]
That's right. That's something that should be investigated. Looking at the accident situation, it is possible that both engines had problems. First of all, the time was too short for the second landing after the aircraft that failed the first landing flew back up. Not only the time but also the path is questionable. We didn't go back to the original runway by turning a big turn, but only 180 degrees and entering from the middle, not the opposite runway or the beginning of the runway. Also, with the head of the plane lifted, it landed at a high speed from the middle, not from the beginning of the runway. It is possible to assume that there was a high possibility that there was an urgent situation in which he had to land without taking more time from the sky. Because of these things, experts estimate that there may have been problems with both engines.

[Anchor]
Engine failure, possible tidal current collision. What are the remaining questions?

[Reporter]
is all connected, but it is also necessary to check whether the landing gear 'landing gear' is not working. Landing gear is a concept that encompasses all devices necessary for take-off, landing, and ground movement, such as airplane wheels. It is largely divided into one front wheel part and two rear wheels. Experts believe that all three landing gears were not working at the time of the accident. Experts say that if both engines fail, the landing gear may also not work. It is also possible for the pilot to manually lower the landing gear even if it does not operate automatically. If you get off manually, you need at least 30 seconds, but some estimate that you didn't have enough time for this accident. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is investigating the exact cause of the accident by collecting flight recorders and voice recorders. However, it is difficult to predict the cause of the accident prematurely because the investigation takes about six months and could be longer.

[Anchor]
What is the government's move on dealing with the accident?

[Reporter]
Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Choi Sang-mok visited the Central Disaster and Safety Situation Room at the Seoul Government Complex at around 9:50 a.m. shortly after hearing the news of the accident. It operated the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and instructed the acting Minister of Public Administration and Security, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Commissioner of the Fire Department, and the Commissioner of the National Police Agency to mobilize all available equipment and personnel to save lives. Acting Choi moved to Muan Airport in Jeollanam-do to look at the accident site. Muan, South Jeolla Province, which was issued by the disaster, was declared a special disaster area. If it is declared a special disaster area, it can receive financial support prescribed by the Presidential Decree, and 50% of the damage recovery cost will be provided to the government. The Ministry of Economy and Finance plans to operate a "Safety Accident Response and Support Task Force" to share information between ministries and implement follow-up procedures such as budget input following the declaration of a special disaster area.

[Anchor]
The plane in the accident is owned by Jeju Air, so what is the airline's position regarding it?

[Reporter]
Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae issued a public apology at a hotel in Seoul at 2 p.m. yesterday. Regardless of the cause of the accident, he expressed his apology, saying he felt responsible as CEO. He also said he would make every effort to support the bereaved families. However, Jeju Air said there was no accident history of the plane in the accident, and there were no abnormal signs in the results of regular maintenance. Chairman Jang Young-shin of Aekyung Group, the parent company, also made a position. We express our heartfelt condolences and condolences to the victims of this accident, and sincerely apologize to the bereaved families. At the same time, he promised that he would do his best to spare all support at the group level.

[Anchor]
Both the police and the prosecution are investigating this accident?

[Reporter]
That's right. The Jeonnam Police Agency formed a 264-member investigation headquarters yesterday. In charge of accident management and rapid identification of the dead, 131 additional scientific investigators and medical examiners were provided to confirm the personal information of the dead. In the future, we plan to investigate the cause of the accident with the Air Railroad Accident Investigation Committee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The police also issued an emergency in the Muan area where the accident occurred, and an emergency in the adjacent Hampyeong and Mokpo areas to enter an emergency service system. Also the prosecution. The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office formed an accident countermeasure headquarters led by the chief of the district prosecutor's office. In a related development, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said it ordered them to respond in cooperation with related agencies to quickly support victims and their bereaved families and thoroughly identify the cause of the accident.

[Anchor]
The U.S. is also participating in the investigation?

[Reporter]
That's right. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will lead a U.S. investigation team to help South Korean aviation authorities investigate, according to a Reuters report. It is an agency belonging to the U.S. federal government in charge of investigating civil traffic accidents such as marine accidents and railroad accidents as well as aviation. The team will also include plane manufacturers Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

[Anchor]
I hope the investigation will be done quickly. That's all for today's talk. I talked to reporter Yang Si-chang. Thank you.