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Government Withholds Partial Findings on Jeju Air Crash After Families, Pilots Reject Pilot-Error Conclusion

Rejection by victims’ relatives alongside the pilots’ union has prompted authorities to pause the release of interim findings that fault a mistaken engine shutdown.

FILE - Rescue team members work at the site of a plane crash at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea on Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
The Boeing 737-800 belly-landed at Muan airport and exploded in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier, killing 179 people
The wreckage of the Jeju Air aircraft that went off the runway and crashed at Muan International Airport lies near a concrete structure, as shown on Dec. 30, 2024.
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Overview

  • Authorities cancelled a planned weekend briefing and withheld a partial investigation report after families of the 179 victims argued the pilot-error finding could mislead the public.
  • Preliminary findings attributed the crash to a bird strike on the right engine and a subsequent mistaken shutdown of the left engine, resulting in total power loss before landing.
  • Families and the Jeju Air pilots’ union have demanded access to cockpit voice and flight data recorder recordings to verify evidence behind the engine-shutdown conclusion.
  • Legal actions filed in May allege negligence by senior officials, including Transport Minister Park Sang-woo, under South Korea’s Aviation Safety Act.
  • South Korean and U.S. teams continue examining technical and infrastructural factors, with a final report due by June 2026.