Bereaved families of victims of the Dec. 29 Jeju Air crash hold a press conference Friday morning at Muan International Airport in Muan-gun, South Jeolla Province, to mark 600 days since the disaster, denouncing what they call state negligence. [Newsis]
Bereaved families of victims of the Dec. 29 Jeju Air crash hold a press conference Friday morning at Muan International Airport in Muan-gun, South Jeolla Province, to mark 600 days since the disaster, denouncing what they call state negligence. [Newsis]

Bereaved families of victims of the Dec. 29 Jeju Air crash gathered at Muan International Airport on Friday to mark 600 days since the disaster, holding a press conference to demand a full investigation and punishment of those responsible. They said the state had failed in its duties over the 600 days since the crash and must be held accountable for what they described as a botched recovery operation and the neglect of victims' remains.

The bereaved families' council — a legally incorporated association representing relatives of victims of the Dec. 29 Muan Airport Jeju Air crash — held the press conference Friday morning at Muan Airport.

In a statement read at the event, the council said the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had rushed to clear the crash site just 15 days after the disaster, claiming 99 percent of wreckage had been recovered — a claim the council called "an outright lie and a catastrophic failure." A subsequent search turned up more than 1,740 fragments of victims' remains and thousands of personal belongings scattered across the site and stuffed inside burlap sacks.

The council went on to say that families were only notified of forensic identification results one year and eight months after the crash, forcing them to relive the anguish of that day. "President Lee Jae Myung, responding to the families' desperate pleas, ordered a thorough investigation and strict punishment of those responsible back in March — but what has actually changed in the months since?" the statement said.

The Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, formerly under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, was transferred to the Office of the Prime Minister to ensure its independence, but appointing a chairperson alone took five months. Prosecutors, the council added, have been delaying indictments and punishment of those responsible, saying they will wait for the board's final findings.

The council urged authorities to identify the causes of the botched recovery and hold those responsible to account, normalize the investigation board's operations, hold a state funeral for remains recovered in the second search, provide relief to bereaved families facing tax and pension penalties, end secondary harm against victims' relatives, and pursue a full investigation with no one shielded from scrutiny.


husn7@heraldcorp.com