South Korean police raid Jeju Air offices as crash probe continues

South Korean police on Thursday raided the offices of Jeju Air and the Muan International Airport operator as part of the investigation into the crash on Sunday that killed 179 people.

The Boeing 737-800 operated by the Korean low-budget company was carrying 181 people from Thailand — mostly South Korean tourists returning from their vacation — to Muan when it made an emergency landing, slamming into a barrier at the end of the runway and bursting into flames.

Just two flight attendants survived the crash.

The airport where Flight 2216 crashed, the Jeju regional aviation office in Muan, and the company’s office in the capital Seoul were all searched.

“In relation to the plane accident … a search and seizure operation is being conducted from 9 am (1 am CET) on 2 January at three locations,” police said in a statement on Thursday.

Black boxes retrieved

Earlier this week, relatives and friends of the victims of the South Korea plane crash gathered at the site to pay respects to their loved ones on New Year’s Day, as officials said they had extracted data from one of the retrieved black boxes to find the exact cause of the crash.

The videos of the crash showed that Flight 2216 attempted to land without its landing gear extended. The footage also showed that the plane was experiencing an apparent engine problem in addition to the landing gear malfunction.

Investigators say the pilot received a warning from air traffic controllers of possible bird strikes, and the plane issued a distress signal before the crash.

The Transport Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that it has completed the data extraction process from the cockpit voice recorder, one of the two black boxes recovered from the wreckage. The ministry added that a damaged flight data recorder will be sent to the US for analysis.

The Transport Ministry said authorities have completed the identification process of 179 victims. It said the government has so far handed over 11 bodies to relatives.

Officials have said they will consider whether the airport’s localiser — a set of antennas housed in a concrete fence at the end of the runway designed to guide aircraft during landings — should have been constructed with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact.

The country is in seven days of national mourning.