S Korea struggles to determine cause of plane crash that killed 179

South Korean officials are struggling to determine what caused a deadly plane crash that killed 179 people, with the nation saddened, shocked and ashamed over the country's worst aviation disaster in decades.

Many observers also worry how effectively the South Korean government will handle the aftermath of Sunday's crash as it grapples with a leadership vacuum following the recent successive impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s top two officials, amid political tumult caused by Yoon’s brief martial law introduction earlier this month.

New Acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday presided over a task force meeting on the crash and instructed the Transport Ministry and police to launch investigations into its cause. He also ordered the ministry to implement an emergency review of the country’s overall aircraft operation systems.

"The essence of a responsible response would be renovating the aviation safety systems on the whole to prevent recurrences of similar incidents and building a safer Republic of South Korea," said Choi, who is also deputy prime minister and finance minister.

The Boeing 737-800 plane operated by South Korea’s budget airline Jeju Air skidded off a runway at Muan International Airport in the country’s south, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into a fireball. The incident killed all but two of the 181 people aboard. The two survivors are both crew members, and they were pulled from the plane's tail section — the only part that was still recognisable after the crash.

Joo Jong-wan, the Transport Ministry’s director of aviation policy, said authorities have so far identified 141 of the bodies, and are conducting DNA tests on the other 38.

Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines and now a consultant, said the Boeing 737-800 is a "proven airplane" that belongs to a different class of aircraft than the Boeing 737 Max jetliner that was linked to fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.

But the Transport Ministry said Monday the government plans to conduct safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 jetliners operated by the country’s airlines.

Ministry officials said they will also look into whether the Muan airport’s localiser — a concrete fence housing a set of antennas designed to guide aircraft safely during landings — should have been made with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact.

Video of the crash indicated that the pilots did not deploy flaps or slats to slow the aircraft, suggesting a possible hydraulic failure, and they did not manually lower the landing gear, suggesting they did not have time, said John Cox, a retired airline pilot and CEO of Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Despite that, the jetliner was under control and travelling in a straight line, and damage and injuries likely would have been minimised if not for a barrier being so close to the runway, Cox said.

Other observers say the videos showed the plane suffering suspected engine trouble but the landing gear malfunction was likely a direct reason for the crash. They say there wouldn't likely be a link between the landing gear problems and the suspected engine problem.

The Transport Ministry said Sunday the control tower issued a warning about birds to the Jeju Air plane shortly before it intended to land and gave the crew permission to land in a different area. It said the plane’s pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before the crash.

Investigators retrieved the jet’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders, but it may take months to complete the probe into the crash, Joo, the Transport Ministry official, told reporters.

The Muan crash is South Korea's deadliest aviation disaster since 1997, when a Korean Airlines plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.

Sunday's crash caused an outpouring of public sympathy for the dead, with the government issuing a seven-day national mourning period. Some questioned if the crash involved safety or regulatory issues, like the 2022 Halloween crush that killed 160 people and the 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people.

The crash was yet more big news for South Koreans as they reel from a festering political crisis set off by Yoon's martial law decree, which brought hundreds of troops into Seoul streets and revived traumatic memories of past military rule in the 1970-80s.

The political tumult resulted in the opposition-controlled National Assembly impeaching Yoon and Han. The safety minister stepped down and the police chief was arrested over their roles in the martial law enhancement.

The absence of top officials responsible for managing disasters has also led to concerns.

"We are deeply worried if the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters really can handle the disaster," the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial on Monday.