Father of girl killed in South Korea air crash says the tragedy is unbelievable

By Ju-min Park and Dogyun Kim

MUAN COUNTY, South Korea (Reuters) – Jeon Je-young retains taking part in the video of the aircraft along with his daughter and one other 180 individuals on board slamming right into a wall and bursting into flames at a South Korean airport.

His daughter Mi-sook died on board. He nonetheless cannot consider it.

“After I noticed the accident video, the aircraft appeared uncontrolled,” mentioned 71-year-old Jeon. “The pilots in all probability had no alternative however to do it. My daughter, who is barely in her mid-40s, ended up like this. That is unbelievable.”

Mi-sook was a warm-hearted baby, he mentioned. She introduced some meals and subsequent yr’s calendar to his home on Dec. 21, which grew to become his final transient second along with her.

“She is way nicer than my son, generally asking me to exit for a meal,” Jeon recalled, displaying his final exchanges along with his daughter on his cell phone.

The deadliest air accident ever in South Korea killed 179 individuals on Sunday, when an airliner belly-landed and skidded off the top of the runway, erupting in a fireball on the Muan Worldwide Airport.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and 6 crew on board, was seen skidding down the runway with no seen touchdown gear earlier than crashing into navigation tools and a wall in an explosion of flames and particles.

Solely two individuals – each crew members – survived and have been being handled for accidents.

GRIEF AND RAGE

Authorities known as out the names of a few of these killed within the crash, triggering an explosion of grief and rage among the many passengers’ households gathered within the airport’s arrival space.

They screamed, wept and collapsed on the ground of the terminal the place their family members had been attributable to return dwelling.

Crime scene investigators collected saliva swaps from households to run DNA checks to establish the victims.

Jeon’s daughter had been on her approach dwelling after travelling with mates to Bangkok for the Christmas vacation. She leaves behind a devastated household, together with a husband and teenaged daughter.

“The water close to the airport is just not deep. Listed below are softer fields than this cement runway. Why could not the pilot land there as an alternative?” Jeon mentioned.

Fireplace officers reported that the influence of the crash had left the aircraft “nearly utterly destroyed”.

“By means of collision twice and explosion, many of the passengers have been thrown off the aircraft, although two crew members fortunately survived on the tail finish,” mentioned Yeom Dong-bu, a Muan firefighter who was dispatched to the scene.

“I used to work on ambulances so I’ve seen this type of horrible stuff like automobile crashes, however not on this scale,” he added.

Mi-sook was recognized by her fingerprints, and her household is in search of a funeral dwelling close to her city of Gwangju to move her physique there.

“She was nearly dwelling, so (she noticed) no have to name the household (to go away any remaining message). She thought she was coming dwelling,” Jeon mentioned.