"Accident Occurred During Power Transition"… US Media Rush to Report Passenger Plane Crash

"The accident aircraft Boeing 737-800 is a key component of international air traffic"

Major foreign media quickly reported the news of the Jeju Air passenger plane accident that occurred on the 29th at Muan International Airport in Jeonnam, expressing concern about the situation in South Korea.

Leading U.S. newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), The New York Times (NYT), and The Washington Post (WP) covered the accident, the casualties, and the presumed causes as their top online news on the 28th (local time).

Wreckage of the aircraft that collided and exploded during landing at Muan International Airport, Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do on the afternoon of the 29th. Photo by Yonhap News

CNN reported the accident as breaking news, specifically noting that the aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-800 model from the American company Boeing. David Sowich, a former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigator interviewed by CNN, said about the Boeing 737-800 involved in the accident, "It is the 'backbone' of international air traffic with an excellent safety record and is operated worldwide," adding, "It is extremely surprising to me that such an incident occurred with this model."

The New York Times (NYT) featured the accident as the main news on its homepage, stating, "With at least 85 fatalities, this accident will be recorded as the worst aviation disaster involving a Korean airline since the crash of a Korean Air passenger plane in Guam, a U.S. territory, in 1997."

Some media highlighted the fact that the worst accident occurred amid South Korea’s political turmoil, following a state of emergency and impeachment proceedings.

The Washington Post (WP) reported, "This accident occurred amid political upheaval in South Korea, following successive transfers of power (including the impeachment of the president and the acting prime minister) and temporary confusion over who is responsible for the nation's highest office."

WP further introduced that after President Yoon Suk-yeol and the acting president were impeached in succession, and Han Duck-soo, who served as acting president, was also impeached, the largest aviation accident occurred shortly after Choi Sang-mok, the acting prime minister and minister of strategy and finance, assumed the role of acting president.

The site of the aircraft accident that collided and exploded during landing at Muan International Airport, Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do, on the afternoon of the 29th. Photo by Yonhap News

The Boeing 737 series aircraft involved in the accident has recently caused problems in the United States due to a series of accidents. Although most of these incidents involved the Boeing 737 Max model, the Boeing 737-800 model, which is the same as the one involved in this accident, also caused issues earlier this year.

In January, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 Max 9 passenger plane departing from Portland International Airport in Oregon, made an emergency landing after part of a window and wall was torn off while flying at about 5,000 meters altitude.

The preliminary investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) into this accident, which resulted in several minor injuries, found that four bolts securing the door were missing during aircraft assembly.

Additionally, on March 6, smoke was detected in the cabin of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800 passenger plane heading to Phoenix, Arizona, causing the plane to return to Portland Airport. This aircraft was the same model as the one involved in the Muan Airport accident. Two days later, on March 8, a United Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 experienced an incident at Houston International Airport in Texas, where it veered off the paved runway while taxiing after landing.