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Jeju Air crash probe hints at human error, enraging bereaved families and pilots

Published: 23 Jul. 2025, 13:19

The wreckage of a Boeing 737-800 plane operated by Jeju Air lies at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla, on Dec. 31, 2024. [AP/YONHAP]

The initial results of an investigation into December’s devastating Jeju Air disaster showed that, while both of the plane’s engines sustained bird strikes, its pilots turned off the less-damaged one just before its crash landing. The findings, which implied human error, drew quick, vehement protests from bereaved families and fellow pilots, accusing the authorities of trying to shift responsibility for the disaster to the dead pilots.

Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board initially planned to publicize the results of an investigation of the plane’s engines on Saturday. But it was forced to cancel its press briefing in the face of strong protests by relatives of crash victims who were informed of the findings earlier in the day, according to government officials and bereaved families.

“If they want to say their investigation was done in a reliable, independent manner, they should have come up with evidence that backs up their explanation,” said Kim Yu-jin, head of an association of bereaved families. “None of us resent the pilots.”

The Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air landed on its belly without its landing gear deployed at Korea’s southern Muan International Airport in South Jeolla on Dec. 29. It overshot the runway, slammed into a concrete structure and burst into flames. It was the deadliest disaster in Korea’s aviation history in decades, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.

According to a copy of an unpublished briefing report obtained by The Associated Press, a Korean-led multilateral investigation team said it found no defects in the plane’s engines built by France’s Safran and GE.

The report said thorough examinations of the engines found that the plane’s right engine suffered more serious internal damage following bird strikes, as it was engulfed by a big fire and black smoke. But the pilots switched off the plane’s left engine, the report said, citing probes of the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder and an engine examination.

Officials earlier said the black boxes of the Boeing jetliner stopped recording about four minutes before the accident, complicating investigations into the cause of the disaster. The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder cited in the briefing report refer to data stored before the recording stopped.

The report didn’t say why the pilots shut off the less-damaged engine and stopped short of saying whether it was an error by the pilots.

Bereaved families and pilots at Jeju Air and other airlines lambasted the investigation findings, demanding that authorities disclose the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

“We, the 6,500 pilots at civilian airlines, can’t contain our seething anger against the preposterous argument by the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board that lost neutrality,” the Korean Pilot Unions Alliance said in a statement Tuesday.

Unionized pilots at Jeju Air also issued a statement urging authorities to present scientific evidence to show that the plane should have landed normally if it had flown with the less-damaged engine.

Police officers stand guard as firefighters and recovery teams work at the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla, on Dec. 30, 2024. [AFP/YONHAP]

The latest report focused only on engine issues and didn’t mention other factors that could also be blamed for the crash. Among them is the concrete structure the plane struck. It housed a set of antennas called localizers designed to guide aircraft safely during landings, and many analysts say it should have been made with more easily breakable materials. Some pilots say they suspect the government wouldn’t want to mainly and prominently blame the localizers or bird strikes for mass deaths as the Muan airport is under direct management of the Transport Ministry.

The Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board and the Transport Ministry have offered no public response to the criticism. They said they also won't publicly discuss the engine investigation to respect demands by bereaved families.

A person familiar with the investigation told the AP that authorities are looking at the localizers and other issues, like whether air traffic controllers relayed the danger of bird strikes to the pilots swiftly enough and what emergency training Jeju Air offered to pilots. The person, who requested anonymity citing the sensitive nature of the investigation, said authorities earlier planned to publicize the results of probes after reviewing various issues, but changed the plan and tried to release the outcome of the engine investigation at the request of bereaved families. He said authorities don’t intend to lay the responsibility for the disaster on the pilots.

Representatives of the bereaved families of the Jeju Air crash, along with officials from the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, police and the National Forensic Service, examine the localizer facility at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla on Feb. 26. [YONHAP]

Authorities aim to publish the investigation’s final results by next June, the person said.

Kwon Bo Hun, dean of Aeronautics College at the Far East University in Korea, called the engine investigation report “clumsy” because it didn’t disclose evidence that supported its finding on the pilots. He said it only irritated “emotional parts of us" as the investigation raised suspicions that it puts the whole blame on the dead pilots.

A former Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official-turned-university professor reached by the AP said the engine investigation report must be “reliable” as it’s based on an analysis of cockpit voice and flight data recorders that “don't lie.” He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the delicate nature of the issue.

AP