Bone Recovered from Neglected Large Bag
Backlash over President Lee’s Reopening Remarks
Truth-Finding and Safety Measures Must Come First
More than a year after being left unattended, a bone believed to be the remains of a victim from the “12-29 passenger plane disaster” has belatedly been recovered from the wreckage of the crashed aircraft, almost exactly one year after the tragedy. The bereaved families strongly condemned the government’s poor initial response and raised their voices, insisting that, before President Lee Jaemyung’s recent call for the “swift reopening of Muan International Airport” can be acted upon, a thorough investigation into the truth and the securing of safety must unconditionally come first.
According to the 12-29 Muan Airport Jeju Air passenger plane disaster Bereaved Families’ Association and the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 26th, at around 11:30 a.m. that day, one piece of human remains, believed to be a victim’s bone, was found at the site of the second investigation of the Jeju Air passenger plane disaster wreckage being conducted at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province.
The Scientific Investigation Unit of the South Jeolla Provincial Police Agency recovered the remains during the final stage of sorting, in which aircraft debris scattered on the ground surface was being placed into large bags and separated. The carefully collected remains were transported to the National Forensic Service in Wonju, Gangwon Province, where DNA extraction and a detailed forensic examination will be conducted to confirm the exact identity.
Previously, the ARAIB had been transferring the aircraft debris scattered on the ground into four containers, collecting personal belongings and other key clues needed to determine the cause of the accident. The large tail section is to be stored in a separately expanded temporary structure. The investigation is being carried out by three teams of about ten people each, who are classifying and recording the wreckage, and it is expected to continue for more than ten rounds in total. So far, the reinvestigation has yielded one piece of remains and 154 items of personal belongings that had been left unattended.
The bereaved families erupted in anger as remains and personal belongings were discovered belatedly, a year after the disaster.
Kim Yujin, head of the Bereaved Families’ Association, said, “The bone that was found was not secretly buried; it was recovered from the crash site and then left all alone in a large bag,” criticizing, “The government’s irresponsible true face, which was focused only on ‘rapid recovery’ and ‘declaring the situation over’ rather than showing respect for life immediately after the disaster, has been laid bare.” Kim continued, “If it had been properly recovered a year ago, countless traces of blood, flesh, and other evidence and truths would have remained, but they were all lost after being left unattended for such a long time, and that causes us heartbreaking pain.”
In particular, the bereaved families issued an official statement strongly protesting President Lee Jaemyung’s remark the previous day at the Presidential Office’s National Tourism Strategy Meeting that “Muan Airport should be reopened quickly to prevent the local tourism industry from being devastated.”
In the statement, the association said, “A swift reopening of Muan Airport is something we, the bereaved families, also earnestly hope for, but the prerequisite must be ‘complete safety,’” and stressed, “The indescribable suffering our families have gone through must never be repeated for other citizens.”
They defined Muan Airport not as a simple transportation facility but as a “test bed to prove state responsibility and public safety.” The association pointed out, “Through the National Assembly’s investigation, some aspects of the state’s responsibility and its false responses have been revealed, and only now has the ARAIB been transferred under the Prime Minister’s Office, reorganized, and begun preparing for a new investigation,” adding, “We cannot leave the accident site based only on the government’s vague promises.”
They further criticized, “The root causes of the accident, including the safety of current airport facilities, the bird-strike prevention system, and air traffic control and emergency response systems, have still not been fully identified,” and said, “Reopening the airport before the causes are clarified is no different from leaving the same kind of disaster to happen again.”
Finally, the association urged, “We are not unconditionally opposed to reopening; we are demanding a reopening in which safety is completely guaranteed,” and called on the government to “put the value of ‘life and safety’ ahead of economic logic or political timetables, and first present concrete safety measures that will allow citizens to use the airport with peace of mind, along with investigation findings that leave not a single doubt unresolved.”
Meanwhile, discussions on reopening Muan International Airport are at a standstill due to intertwined issues, including opposition to removing the localizer needed for the accident investigation and the reinvestigation of the aircraft wreckage.
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