One year after Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashed at Muan International Airport following a bird strike, relatives of the 179 victims continue to demand fuller answers. The December 29, 2024 belly landing ended with the aircraft striking a concrete antenna housing at the runway's end — a structure critics say should have been frangible under international guidance. Families accuse the interim report of focusing on pilot actions while overlooking systemic infrastructure and safety shortcomings, and they remain encamped at the closed airport pressing for a transparent, system-wide investigation.
Families Demand Answers One Year After Deadly Jeju Air Crash at Muan Airport
Grieving mother Lee Hyo-eun returns every weekend to the airport where her daughter and 178 others died last year (ANTHONY WALLACE)(ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/AFP)
Every weekend, grieving mother Lee Hyo-eun returns to Muan International Airport — the site where her 24-year-old daughter and 178 others died — seeking clarity one year after South Korea's deadliest airline disaster.
What Happened
Jeju Air Flight 2216 was on approach from Thailand on December 29, 2024 when it struck a flock of birds and was forced into an emergency belly landing. The aircraft then collided with a concrete structure at the runway's end. Only two flight attendants seated in the tail section survived; 179 people died in the accident.
Families Say The Investigation Is Incomplete
Official investigators have emphasised pilot actions — including the decision to shut down the less damaged left engine during the emergency — in explaining the crash. But relatives of the victims say the interim July report focused too narrowly on pilot error and failed to address broader safety and infrastructure questions.
"We demand answers," reads a banner hung in the closed terminal. "A country incapable of protecting citizens is not a country."
Since the crash, Muan Airport has been closed to commercial flights. Families have set up tents in the second-floor departure terminal, draping blue ribbons and stapling handwritten letters to stairways. The navigation antenna localisers damaged in the crash still stand at the runway's end, and fragments of concrete slabs and broken pillars lie scattered nearby.
Key Safety Concern: Concrete Antenna Housing
Relatives and safety advocates point to a concrete structure that housed antenna localisers at the end of the runway. International aviation guidance recommends that such navigation structures be made from frangible (breakable) materials to reduce impact forces during runway excursions. The interim report did not explain why the Muan installation used concrete.
A subsequent nationwide inspection found six other South Korean airports with localisers mounted in concrete or steel housings. Authorities told investigators that five sites have been retrofitted with frangible housings and the sixth is scheduled for retrofit next year.
Voices From Those Left Behind
Lee Hyo-eun remembers preparing a welcome dinner for her daughter Ye-won, a cello instructor who had just celebrated her birthday in Bangkok, when she learned her plane had not landed. "She was gone when she was at her brightest, in full bloom at 24," Lee said. Photographs and messages from Ye-won's students and friends now fill her home.
Some relatives believe the crew did all they could in the moments before the crash. "They managed to land the plane on its belly against all odds, with everyone still alive at that point, without knowing there was a concrete structure ahead of them," Lee told reporters. "Everyone could have survived — only with injuries — if it had been a mound of earth."
What Families Want
Relatives insist the investigation should move beyond assigning individual blame and examine systemic failures — airport infrastructure, regulatory oversight and safety compliance — that made the disaster possible. They continue to camp at Muan, pressing authorities for a fuller, more transparent, system-focused inquiry.
Authorities say some infrastructure fixes are underway, but families and safety experts call for clearer explanations, timelines and accountability so similar tragedies can be prevented.
Reporting details compiled from interviews with relatives, family statements and the July interim investigation report.
