"Jeju Air Disaster: All Could Have Survived Without Embankment"…Ministry of Land Changes Stance

Investigation Board Report: "No Serious Injuries"
Bereaved Families Association: "All Investigation Materials Must Be Disclosed"

On the 22nd, officials from the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board investigating the cause of the Jeju Air passenger plane accident at Muan International Airport in Jeollanam-do are conducting an on-site investigation of the azimuth facility (localizer). Photo by Yonhap News Agency

An investigation has found that if the concrete embankment had not been present in the '12·29 Muan Airport Jeju Air passenger plane disaster,' in which 179 people died, all passengers could have survived.

According to a research report by the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (the Investigation Board) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released on January 9, the Korean Association for Computational Structural Engineering, which conducted the study, estimated that if the concrete embankment supporting the localizer facility at Muan Airport in Jeonnam had not existed, all occupants would have survived.

In March of last year, the Investigation Board commissioned the Korean Association for Computational Structural Engineering to analyze the impact of the Muan Airport localizer embankment on the scale of the accident's damage. Supercomputer simulations indicated that, without the concrete embankment, the aircraft would have decelerated and come to a stop after a belly landing, without a major impact.

If the embankment had been a "breakable structure" rather than concrete, it is highly likely the aircraft would have slid through the airport security fence and into the adjacent rice fields. However, even in this scenario, it was estimated that there would have been no serious injuries.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also recently submitted materials to the National Assembly stating, "The Muan Airport localizer facility did not meet airport safety operation standards," and, "According to regulations at the time of the 2020 improvement project, the area within 240 meters from the end of the precision approach runway should have been improved with a breakable structure." This contradicts the ministry's earlier position, immediately after the accident, that "no laws were violated."

In response, the 12·29 Muan Airport Jeju Air Passenger Plane Disaster Bereaved Families Association issued a statement the previous day, urging, "Since it has been revealed that the disaster at Muan Airport was clearly a man-made disaster, the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, which concealed this, must apologize."

The association stated, "A simulation result has shown that if there had been no concrete embankment at the end of the airport runway, all passengers would have survived," and "This is not a mere assumption but a scientific conclusion based on a precise collision simulation using a supercomputer and an analysis of the impact on each seat. However, this report was not released to the bereaved families for over a year."

The association also said, "The Investigation Board and the police blocked access to all information related to the work instructions and research contents of the embankment study," and added, "They deceived the bereaved families and undermined the independence and fairness of the investigative agencies themselves."

The association further stated, "All investigation materials should be disclosed to the bereaved families, and a parliamentary investigation must clarify the circumstances of the embankment's installation, management responsibilities, and the complex causes of the accident as a whole," adding, "Legislative amendments for the independent transfer of the investigative body must also be promptly enacted."