South Korea’s acting president arrives at scene of deadliest air disaster, 174 killed
SEOUL – South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, arrived at the scene of the country’s deadliest air disaster on Sunday, where at least 174 people were killed when an airliner belly-landed, veered off the runway, and erupted in a fireball after crashing into a wall at Muan International Airport.
Choi, the country’s finance minister, became acting leader on Friday night after the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been acting president since President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended from power on Dec. 14 following his short-lived attempt to impose martial law.
The bewildering turnover at the top of Asia’s fourth-largest economy and one of its most vibrant democracies left the government scrambling when Jeju Air flight 7C2216 slammed into a wall at Muan International Airport, killing most of the 181 people on board.
Choi visited the site a few hours after the crash and declared it a special disaster zone.
“The government would like to offer its sincere condolences to the bereaved families and will do its best to recover from this accident and prevent a recurrence,” he said.
Behind the scenes, government offices were still figuring out the chain of command and how press statements would be released, a ministry spokesperson and four other officials told Reuters. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive planning.
“Today Choi went to Muan with land ministry officials, not finance ministry officials,” a spokesperson said. “A team of transportation ministry officials and safety ministry officials will report directly to Choi regarding the Muan plane crash for the next few weeks. As for how we will distribute press releases on all his schedules – still undecided.”
Each ministry involved in foreign policy, administrative issues, or safety has teams reporting to Choi, but Yoon’s presidential staff does not, and Choi is operating from a government complex in Seoul rather than any official residence, one official said.
A senior finance ministry official said it is still undecided who, if anyone, from Yoon’s and Han’s offices would report to Choi. Some of Choi’s duties as finance minister have been delegated to the vice minister, the ministry official added.
“The central disaster control team meetings are minister-level meetings, so the land minister and safety minister report directly to Choi,” this official said.
Separately, Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologised for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing.
He said the aircraft had no record of accidents, and there were no early signs of malfunction. The airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the bereaved its top priority, Kim said.
No abnormal conditions were reported when the aircraft left Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, said Kerati Kijmanawat, president of Airports of Thailand.
The accident marks the first fatal flight for Jeju Air, a low-cost airline founded in 2005 that ranks behind Korean Air Lines 003490.KS and Asiana Airlines in terms of the number of passengers in South Korea.
