Jeju Air crash families denounce report blaming pilot error

[SEOUL] The families of victims of South Korea’s deadliest plane crash on home soil have denounced a government report which blamed the disaster on pilot error, a representative told AFP on Tuesday.

The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to South Korea’s south-west on Dec 29 last year but ended up belly-landing at Muan airport and exploding in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier, killing 179 people.

South Korea’s land ministry told AFP it had planned to release the partial findings of the investigation into the crash at the weekend but called off a briefing and withheld the report after the families objected, claiming it could be misleading.

The report said a bird strike damaged the plane’s right engine but the pilot then mistakenly shut down the left engine instead, a representative for the families, who saw the report, told AFP.

The error resulted in a total power loss and a failure of the landing gear system, they said.

The pilot said: “Let’s shut down engine number 2 (the right engine),” but the flight data recorder showed that actually it was the left engine that was shut down, according to the report.

“No one has directly seen or heard the cockpit voice recorder or the flight data recorder,” Kim Youn-mi, a representative of the victims’ families, told AFP.

“We weren’t given any proper explanation about those things. We need to hear that to know. We have the right,” she added.

The Jeju Air pilots’ union also criticised the report, saying it was “strongly angered” by the findings and would “firmly reject the malicious attempt to shift blame onto the pilot”.

The findings were part of an ongoing probe by South Korean and US investigators, who are still investigating the cause of the disaster.

A bird strike – feathers and bloodstains were found in both engines – a faulty landing gear and the runway barrier are among the possible issues.

The final report is planned to be released in June next year. REUTERS