Muan: It was the place of the worst disaster on the South -Korean soil. Now, the terminal at the Muan International Airport serves as a Community Center for the grieving relatives of the 179 people who have died in the air accident in December.
Families gather to speak, to eat together – some even stay overnight in tents.
In that cavernous building in southwestern South Korea, families waited anxiously after Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 landed on December 29.
Then there were tears and outbursts of anger, while officials periodically read the names of the dead, many identified by DNA tests.
“We are a family now,” said son Joo-Taek, who lost his son in the accident and was among about 20 people who sat around a row of folding tables that owned water and snacks on a recent Saturday. “The people here understand what others cannot be.”
Lately, the discussion between some of the grieving families has fought to action.
Jet-which carries largely a home holiday from a trip from the end of the year to his thyiland on his belly on the track and moved along until he hit a concrete bermel and exploded in flames, leaving only two survivors.
The relatives of those killed say that they are dissatisfied with the information from the officials and the refusal to issue records, including transcriptions from the Control Tower.
They want to find out more about the reports of a bird blow a few minutes before landing, how the jet lowered without its landing equipment and why it was not designed to place it.
In despair, some have turned to books and videos to find out about aviation safety, including how flight recorders, air traffic controllers, locals and jet engines work. It also looks at the design of the airport.
“The first priority of the families is to get the truth,” said the Ha-Yang son, the daughter of the son Joo-Taek, at the airport where her brother and his girlfriend were killed. “Otherwise, we only rely on investigators, who often use jargon.”
The son of Ha-Yang, who took about three months from work at Seoul, said he felt the need to read Boeing textbooks and aviation regulations and studied terms that had not meant anything for her: CVR, FDR, ICAO. She was about other relatives who said they wanted to know more about what could have been wrong.
The southern -Korean authorities said it could take more than a year to complete the investigation, which faced obstacles that frustrated families. Among them: the jet flight records have ceased to record for the last four minutes of the flight.
“Families want to know why their loved ones died,” said Park Cheol, lawyer for families. “They also feel that, studying, they make an effort for those who died.”
Some relatives challenged the officials at the accident meetings. They say they are worried that there are not enough people investigating the cause, compared to the cases in the United States. Nor did the authorities accept their request to issue communications from the control tower around the accident period.
The Ministry of Transport of South Korea has stated in a statement that the investigative body was in discussions with the authorities to increase the number of investigators. The ministry also took into account the provision of a transcript of air traffic control communications, although they were not usually released to the public, he said.
Kim Yu-Jin watches videos on YouTube and has read books about past aviation disasters since her parents and brother died in the accident. They look at the safety features that airplanes have when they make emergency landings.
At Kim’s Cafe, in the southern county of Jangheung, her mother, Jung Sun-Zk, was the barista and helped in packing deliveries. Her father, Kim Deok-Won, helped transport strawberries and milk and planned to expand her 350-square-meter store.
She said that her parents also helped grow the four children. After the accident, she temporarily closed the cafe to focus on her children and deal with pain.
“Everything has the touch of my parents,” she said. “There are traces of them everywhere.”
After losing his son and daughter-in-law, Lee Jung-Kun focused his personal research on a specific factor: concrete berma. Most airports around the world do not have similar structures so close to tracks, and when they do, they are made of more fragile materials meant to break away from the impact, the specialists said.
Lee researched the Internet for Berm information and became convinced that it is the biggest factor in great death.
“If he hadn’t been for Berm, almost everyone would have survived,” he said during an airport visit with his wife, Lee Mi-Jung.
His son Jae-Hyeok and the wife of the young man, Tae Ari, shared a fishing love and married in 2020. They planned to start a family, and the private Academy of Mathematics in Haenam County in southwest of Haenam was doing well, said Lee Mi-Jung.
The couple had not initially intended to visit Thailand. But a state-of-the-art offer from a travel agency coincided with their wedding anniversary, said Lee Jung-Heun.
Coming to the airport is a way in which some families find a sense of community when their homes are now defined by absence. Others stay away from the airport, fearing that memories will be too painful or constrained.
The accident left Lee Bong-Kyung with a naval yard fighting in the southwest of Mokpo, which was founded by his father in 2015. Sales have sank in recent years and Lee said it is the ethics of his father who kept the business alive: “Everything he knew was,” he said.
When Lee started working on the naval site about six years ago, he offered his father more free time. Old Lee traveled to Bangkok with a group of childhood friends. His death left his person crushed personally and professionally.
“We also have a lot of debts and loans to pay, so I thought about giving up a few times,” he said.
The experience of many grieving families – isolation of friends and colleagues, solidarity with the relatives of other victims and a distrust of the government – echo after other disasters from South Korea, including sinking with the 2014 ferry and a lot of crushing in Seoul in 2022.
Lee Jeong-Bok and his wife, Jeong Hyeon-Kyeong, mourned another young victim. Their daughter, Min-Ju, died after taking a trip with a high school friend. She was in her second year at her first job in college.
From the accident, the other three children of Jeong Hyeon-Kyeong have helped their parents more, such as doing the food. “They matured quickly,” she said.
Lee said that he and his wife were planning to stay at the airport until the cause of the accident came to light.
“The investigation must be thorough and objective,” he said. “There will be responsibility and consequences.”
Once the investigation is completed, the families will consider the processes to respond to those responsible for the accident, said Mr. Jung Yu-Chan, a spokesman for the families.
At the airport on a recent Saturday, Jo Mi-Youn mourned an entire family that died on the jet. Jo Mi-Ja’s sister was on board with her daughter, her daughter’s husband and their two children.
Jo said that the father of the children, Na Byung-Hwa, took his family to Bangkok for a triple holiday: he was recently promoted to work at an agricultural cooperative, his wedding anniversary was approaching, and his mother-in-law recently had 60 years of birth.
“Who else will remember this family?” Jo asked.
Her brother, Jo Hyo-Seon, said he and his sister stayed at the airport almost every day after the accident, finding comfort in their common experience with other families.
“Only here we can cry, we can only laugh here,” he said. “We do not leave until the truth is told.” – New York Times