Police in South Korea have banned Jeju Air chief executive Kim E-bae from leaving the country amid an investigation into the deadliest-ever air disaster on South Korean soil.
The move came on Thursday as aviation authorities stepped up their probe into the cause of the deadly crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 on Sunday, which killed 179 of 181 people on board, with the police issuing a statement saying they planned to “swiftly and rigorously determine the cause and responsibility” for the accident.
On Thursday morning, the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency carried out “search and seizure operations” at Muan airport where flight 2216 crashed, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city, and Jeju Air’s office in the capital Seoul.
South Korean authorities on Wednesday said they extracted the initial data from one of the Boeing 737-800’s two black boxes, with the other to be sent to the United States for analysis due to damage it suffered in the crash.
South Korean officials have launched an inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in operation, as well as a wider probe of the country’s entire airline operations.
The country’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, said on Thursday that immediate action must be taken if the inspections reveal any problems with the aircraft model.
“As there’s great public concern about the same aircraft model involved in the accident, the transport ministry and relevant organisations must conduct a thorough inspection of operation maintenance, education, and training,” Choi said.
Aviation experts have raised a series of possible causes and contributing factors in the disaster, including a collision with birds, mechanical failure, and the presence of a hardened embankment less than 300 metres (328 yards) from the end of the runway.
The Boeing 737-800 belly-landed on the runway, without its landing gear deployed, shortly after the pilot reported a bird strike to air traffic control, before skidding into a concrete embankment and exploding into flames.
The crash was the deadliest accident involving a South Korean airline since a Korean Air Boeing 747 crashed into a Guam hillside in 1997, killing 228 people.
