We're going to start identifying the victims...What caused the disaster?

[Anchor]
The settlement of the fatalities of the Jeju Air plane disaster was completed about 11 hours after the accident.

Now, identification of victims and analysis of the cause of the accident are in full swing.

A joint memorial altar has been set up for the victims of the disaster, and government-level support for bereaved families will continue.

Let's connect the reporter in front of Muan Airport.

Reporter Na Hyunho and Kim Minsung!

Please summarize how it went from the disaster to the settlement of the accident.

[Reporter]
Yes, the accident happened at around 9:03 a.m. yesterday.

A Jeju Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, got into an accident while trying to land at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province.

The aircraft crashed into the runway facilities, shattered the rest except for the tail, and was completely burned.

There were 181 people on the plane, including 175 passengers, 4 cabin crew, and 2 pilots.

The fire department caught a big fire in about 40 minutes and rescued two people from the tail of the aircraft.

The two rescued were male and female flight attendants in their 20s, and their lives are not in danger.

All 179 other passengers on board have been confirmed dead.

From now on, reporter Kim Min-sung and I will tell you more about the situation just before the accident and the future procedures for dealing with the accident.

[Reporter]
Reporter Kim, let's take a closer look at the situation just before the crash.

There was an accident after a total of two landing attempts, right?

[Journalist]
Yes, that's right.

The first landing permit of the Muan International Airport control tower was around 8:54 a.m., nine minutes before the accident.

At this time, the first landing was attempted, and at around 8:57 the control tower warned the plane of a bird collision.

The plane immediately rose again.

I tried to change the direction of progress, go around.

Two minutes later, around 59 minutes later, the plane made a distress signal and a May Day request.

I tried to land a second time through the other side of the runway around 9 o'clock.

Three minutes later, he attempted to land the fuselage without lowering the landing gear and landing gear or not.

We couldn't slow down until we reached the end of the runway, leading to a disaster.

After this process, all but two first rescuers were found dead.

Why the casualties were so great, are there many analyses coming out?

[Reporter]
Yes, this accident will remain the most casualty-damaged disaster in the history of aircraft accidents in Korea.

Earlier, the most damaging aircraft accident was the 1993 Asiana Haenam crash, and 66 people died at the time.

I'd like to point out the fuselage landing first because it led to a major disaster.

A fuselage landing is a kind of emergency landing that brakes to the back of the aircraft without wheels.

If you look at the video at the time of the accident, the fuselage lands with the head of the aircraft lifted.

The speed slipped to the end of the runway, with no slowing down.

At this time, the important thing is the friction between the back of the aircraft and the runway.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the plane landed on about a third of the runway and had a touchdown.

It's a situation where you can't say that you haven't used up the 2,800m runway at Muan Airport.

We need to investigate why we couldn't land at the starting point of the runway and what was the reason for the urgency.

In the end, it is analyzed that the accident crashed into the runway facilities and caused a large number of casualties due to fire.

I think it will be enough to organize the contents of the accident, and the identification of the victim and the support of the bereaved family will also be important.

Sad stories are known and social interest is high, what do you think?

[Reporter]
Yes, it was found that all but two crew members died in about 11 hours after the accident, and now the identification of the recovered victims is being carried out quickly.

So far, 141 of the dead have been identified, and 38 are being identified by DNA analysis and fingerprinting.

It is said that some bodies are severely damaged, or there are cases where fingerprint identification is impossible because they are not registered, such as children and adolescents.

Police and the National Forensic Service are using DNA rapid readers at the scene.

We are also focusing on quickly identifying optometrists and assistants.

The process is under way for the bereaved family to deliver the recovered bodies with consent, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to contact the bereaved families individually when possible.

Local governments such as Jeollanam-do and Muan-gun have set up a joint memorial altar at Muan Sports Park near Muan Airport.

The related agency plans to allocate dedicated public officials on a family basis to support the recovery of the psychology of the bereaved family and to support the funeral procedures of the identified victims.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok declared Muan a special disaster area and ordered all-out efforts to rescue and deal with damage.

Another key now is to find out the cause of the accident.

Shall we look at the model first?

[Reporter]
Yes, it has been confirmed that this Jeju Air accident is a 737-800 model manufactured by Boeing.

In other words, the plane is 15 years old.

The 737-800 model has sold more than 5,000 units since its launch in 1997.

It is believed that about 100 units are operated mainly by low-cost airlines in Korea.

The aviation industry evaluates that the reason why it was sold a lot is because it was recognized for its safety.

However, due to the large number of accidents and breakdowns, there are often news of accidents and breakdowns.

It was March 2022.

The cause of the accident has not yet been confirmed, although 123 passengers and nine crew members were killed in a Chinese Eastern Airlines plane crash in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China.

At 6:44 a.m. today, a Jeju Air-like model that left Gimpo International Airport for Jeju was found to have an abnormality in the landing gear shortly after takeoff and circulated.

In addition to the aircraft, let's look at the characteristics of Muan Airport.

Some point out that the runway is short or that it is an airport with a lot of birds, what do you think?

[Reporter]
Yes, the runway of Muan Airport is 2,800 meters.

It is shorter than Incheon Airport or Gimpo Airport, but it is several tens of meters longer than other international airports such as Daegu Airport or Cheongju Airport.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport says there is no problem with the length of the runway designed first.

However, as mentioned earlier, there are many views that what size of the aircraft and where it landed on the runway can be a variable in the accident.

It is also true that a lot of migratory birds come and go.

Moreover, one of the plane's crew members said, "It is presumed to be a bird collision. "It exploded after smoke from one engine," he said, which is also cited as the cause of the accident.

There are mudflats and lakes around the runway of Muan Airport, so there are plenty of bird prey.

It is formed of soft ocher mudflats, and many migratory birds such as stir-birds and yellow-billed white egrets come and go.

The government was going to apply for the Muan tidal flat to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Even if the reporters looked at the sky from time to time, they could easily see a long group of migratory birds.

It is true that the risk increases especially in winter as migratory birds flock to the Korean Peninsula in search of food.

The cause of the accident should be identified quickly.

When do you think the specific results will come out?

[Reporter]
The key to identifying the cause is the black box of the accident machine.

The black box consists of two: a voice recorder and a flight recorder containing gas conditions.

The voice recorder is intact, but the outside of the flight recorder is damaged.

First of all, the black box will be transferred to the Gimpo Airport Test and Analysis Center.

If domestic analysis is difficult, you may have to send it to the National Transportation Safety Board and NTSB.

The analysis can take a long time.

Currently, the NTSB has also decided to support aircraft manufacturer Boeing to investigate the cause of the accident.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it could take up to three years for the exact cause of the accident to come out.

For example, Asiana Airlines' San Francisco landing accident in 2013, which killed three people, also took 11 months to release a report on the cause of the accident.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok said he will transparently disclose the accident investigation process to the bereaved families.

Even before the final results are released, we will transparently disclose the accident investigation process and inform the bereaved family.

[Reporter]
The Jeju Air plane disaster is recorded as the worst aviation accident in Korea.

For now, identification of the victims, funeral, and support from the bereaved families will be the most urgent.

In addition, the cause of the accident should be identified as quickly and accurately as possible so that it does not lead to similar accidents.

So far, I have delivered it in front of Muan International Airport.