By Dasl Yoon and Timothy W. Martin
SEOUL -- South Korean police raided the offices of the airline and airport operator involved in Sunday's fiery plane crash that killed 179 passengers, with the search warrant issued on charges of professional negligence resulting in death.
There were just two survivors of the Jeju Air flight, with the Boeing 737-800 jet skidding off the runway, slamming into a concrete-reinforced embankment and erupting into flames. The crash at Muan International Airport, located in the country's southwest, represented one of the worst aviation disasters in years.
Roughly 30 investigators on Thursday collected evidence from Jeju Air's office in Seoul, as well as the Muan airport and its regional aviation administration office.
No individual has been charged at this time, police said. Under South Korean law, professional or gross negligence that results in death can carry punishment of up to five years in prison.
Shares of Jeju Air have fallen roughly 13% this week, while tens of thousands of travelers have canceled reservations with the budget airline. The company's CEO, Kim E-bae, is banned from leaving the country. The airline, named after a South Korean resort island, will cooperate with police, a company director said on Thursday.
The investigation will focus on the communications between the Muan control tower and the Jeju Air pilots -- particularly during the flight's chaotic final six minutes featuring multiple attempts to land, mayday alerts over a bird strike and an abrupt belly landing made roughly halfway down the airport's sole runway.
Efforts will also look at whether Jeju Air had followed regulations and proper maintenance of the jet, as well as the design of the airport itself. The location of the roughly seven-feet-high embankment, just over 800 feet from the end of the runaway, has fallen under scrutiny. With the surrounding terrain low, the structure needed to be elevated, so the "localizer" antenna atop the embankment could function by sitting at a similar height as the runway.
South Korea's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, has ordered a thorough examination of the country's airline operation system -- including a special safety inspection for the more than 100 Boeing 737-800 jets operated by domestic airlines. Officials said they were also checking the localizer equipment at the nation's airports.
A team of South Korean and U.S. investigators, including Boeing officials, are exploring the crash's causes. Data from the cockpit voice recorder has been converted into audio files, South Korea's transport ministry said, though releasing the communications to the public may be difficult due to the continuing investigation.
The jet's other black box, the aircraft flight-data recorder, was partially damaged and will be taken to the U.S. for analysis in cooperation with the National Transportation Safety Board.
Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com and Timothy W. Martin at Timothy.Martin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 02, 2025 10:31 ET (15:31 GMT)
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