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A year after the Jeju Air disaster, Muan Airport remains home for one man grieving loss of his family

Published: 28 Dec. 2025, 18:08 Updated: 28 Dec. 2025, 19:16

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Park In-wook, 69, picks up litter around the fence area close to the runway of Muan International Airport in South Jeolla, where an airplane carrying his families crashed last year, on Dec. 22. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

MUAN COUNTY, South Jeolla — For Park In-wook, Muan International Airport in South Jeolla has been his home for the past 359 days as of Dec. 22. Since losing his family in last year’s Jeju Air crash, he has not returned home.

On Dec. 29, 2024, Jeju Air's B737-800 flying from Bangkok, Thailand, crashed during its landing at Muan International Airport, killing 179 people — all Koreans except for two Thai nationals. The plane, which allegedly experienced a bird strike, attempted a belly landing without landing gear and skidded off the runway. The aircraft later hit a concrete embankment with localizers on top. The plane, loaded with fuel, exploded. The only survivors were two flight attendants sitting at the tail section.

The scars of the crash are still present across Korean society one year later.

Park lost his wife, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren in the aviation accident.

“Even if I go home, nobody's there,” Park, a retired civil servant, told the Korea JoongAng Daily last Monday.

Park, a South Jeolla native, said it is better to stay at the airport, where he can be with other bereaved relatives, rather than be alone at home.

Memorial altars are installed at airports and train stations nationwide. The airport has extended its temporary closure seven times since the crash.

Although the bereaved families remain tormented by still not knowing the precise cause of the accident, they continue to shoulder dual responsibilities: seeking the truth behind the crash and making society safer by remembering their losses.

A makeshift home at the airport

Dozens of yellow emergency tents are installed on a departure floor at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla on Dec. 22. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

Except for a handful of victims’ families and a few staffers seemingly working for facility maintenance, Muan International Airport was nearly empty when the Korea JoongAng Daily visited a week ahead of the first anniversary of the crash. Operations of public bus services connecting the airport to nearby counties and cities were halted.

Doors between airside and landside were shut. Check-in counters were closed. In front of the counters, two large panels stood with phrases saying: “Remember Dec. 29” and “It was preventable, they could have been saved and we can reveal [the truth].”

Dozens of yellow tents on the departure floor have become a new shelter for about seven to eight bereaved families every night. While some victims’ families stay at the airport once every four days, rotating in shifts, Park In-wook chose to remain there permanently, as long as he could.

The departure floor at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla is out of service on Dec. 22. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

On Monday morning, around three or four bereaved relatives participated in a handicraft activity organized by the regional trauma center at Naju National Hospital.

Among them was Park, a retired Oceans Ministry official who had lost his faith and trust in the government after last year’s crash. He once believed that the nation comes before family.

His disappointment stemmed from the state investigative authority not informing the victims’ families of any developments — except for engine records — for a year. He found the government’s handling of the accident "irresponsible" for failing to notify the public of the probe's findings and for failing to prepare measures to make the country safer. He also criticized the investigation's credibility because Transport Ministry-appointed investigators had conducted a probe into concrete mounds and other factors under the ministry's purview.

“I really worked hard,” Park said. “In the end, [the country] took my family away.”

During his 32 years of service at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Park was involved in recovery works in maritime disasters, including the 2010 ROKS Cheonan sinking and the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking.

“When I retrieved victims’ corpses at disaster sites while working, I used to think of it as an occupational task,” Park said. “Once it happened to my family and me, my heart shattered.”

Light blue memorial ribbons are seen tied to fence near the runway of Muan International Airport in South Jeolla on Dec. 22. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

Near the site where the airplane collided with the concrete mound, hundreds of light blue ribbons tied to the fence, their color symbolizing the sky, blew in the cold, wintry wind. Liquor bottles, a pack of rice cakes, a tangerine and a chocolate bar were placed neatly beneath the fence, a Korean memorial tradition in which surviving families bring the dead’s favorite dish and put it in front of their grave.

Over the fence, the concrete embankment with broken localizers atop it still bears the scar of last year's accident. Wrecked concrete structures buried under the mound of dirt were graphically exposed to the air.

The aircraft’s tail section — one of the very few parts of the plane that remained intact after the crash — was moved to an empty lot inside the airport’s compound. The tail part was covered with a black sheet.

“As time passes, the pain seems to have faded a little bit,” Park said. “I could barely get close to the runway in the past.”

Little progress

A crane lifts the tail section of crashed Jeju Air's B737-800 at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla on Jan. 3, five days after the accident. [NEWS1]

Soon after the accident, an international joint investigation with French and U.S. authorities was undertaken. To date, very few findings have been made available.

What has been revealed so far is that 17 feathers and blood stains of Baikal teal, a species of dabbling duck, were found on both engines of the aircraft. The report was made in January.

No definitive clues or answers have been provided on why the airplane performed a go-around after its initial landing attempt, or why the localizer was atop the cement embankment.

The Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board under the Transport Ministry has led the investigation. Although an interim briefing was scheduled earlier this month, it was postponed indefinitely due to objections from the bereaved families.

The families claimed that they cannot trust the results because the ministry had authorized the construction of the concrete embankment, likening it to a situation in which “a fox guards the hen house.” The concrete mound has been accused of worsening the damage and violating the international aviation code for airport safety.

They also urged the establishment of an independent investigation board. By next month, the investigative board is set to splinter from the Transport Ministry and move under the prime minister's secretariat.

A concrete embankment that Jeju Air's B737-800 collided with is seen wrecked at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla on Dec. 22. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

Aviation experts noted that such a separation is the right move.

Han Kyoung-keun, an aviation studies professor from Hanseo University, said that the investigation supervised by the Transport Ministry was inappropriate because the ministry could be subject to the investigation.

“Most countries run their investigation board independently,” Han said. “In the United States, the National Transportation Safety Board conducts probes on matters of aviation, land, marine and railway transportation independently.”

Ahn Young-tae, a flight operations professor from Far East University, called the reorganization a heartening development. However, he said that ascertaining responsibility can be challenging, especially when data and information are withheld.

“Voice recorders are installed at air traffic control towers, and correspondence between pilots and towers is usually disclosed when accidents happen,” Ahn said. “However, the record in the case of the Jeju Air crash has not been revealed yet. The Transport Ministry manages the controllers.”

According to an association representing the bereaved families, they have not received any critical evidence, such as data from the airplane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

Seeking better representation

Bereaved families of the Jeju Air crash demand an impartial investigation and punishment of the people responsible for the accident during a memorial event held in central Seoul on Dec. 20. [NEWS1]

For family members of victims of the crash, grievances remain because of the unavailability of investigative records and delayed punishment against those who are responsible for the collision and other factors that aggravated the loss.

Koh Jae-seung, who lost his parents in the accident and serves as director of an association representing the victims’ families, expressed regret over an international aviation rule that excludes bereaved families.

Referring to an International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) provision that stipulates investigators to remain “independent from entities that could interfere with the conduct or objectivity of an investigation,” Koh told the Korea JoongAng Daily that the clause is unfavorable to bereaved families.

Bereaved relatives of the Jeju Air crash shave their heads to demand an independent investigative board in front of the then-Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul on Dec.1. [NEWS1]

Koh pointed to an irony in the investigation procedures, noting that other interested parties, such as aircraft manufacturers and airlines, are typically involved.

“In this structure, only the bereaved families are completely left out,” Koh said. “It prevents families of the victims from accessing information obtained through the investigation, and I want this clause to be amended for better inclusivity.”

Koh’s remarks appear to have stemmed from how bereaved families have largely been left uninformed about investigation findings for a year.

“The government has not disclosed any information about bird control, the concrete embankment, air traffic control or firefighting — subjects that the government is responsible for,” Koh said. “The government’s inaction is equivalent to secondary victimization.”

Remembrance continues

A memorial altar for the victims of the Jeju Air crash at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla [LEE SOO-JUNG]

Some facilities inside the airport turned into places of condolence and remembrance. The joint memorial altar had victims’ nameplates and their photos. Letters on sticky notes written by families and objects that appeared to be the victims’ belongings were next to their photos.

A staircase in front of the altar had hundreds of handwritten notes, each bearing condolences, attached to the glass railing. Most of them were written in early January, shortly after the accident — it appears that time has stopped since.

Bereaved relatives of victims of the Jeju Air crash participate in a roundtable conference held in Gwangju to brainstorm ideas for a declaration to protect victims' rights on Dec. 22. [NEWS1]

The bereaved families came together to make the country safer by remembering their loved ones who died a year ago.

Last Monday, the association of the Jeju Air crash victims’ families brainstormed on key principles for a declaration to protect the rights of victims of all types of disasters — not limited to the Jeju Air crash. The families decided to adopt three key principles: establish an independent investigative agency, disclose all information transparently, and hold accountable those who caused the disaster.

The declaration is expected to be announced on Dec. 28 and delivered to the government the following day, marking exactly one year since the accident.

An official memorial event will take place at Muan International Airport on Dec. 29. At 9:03 a.m., and a memorial siren will sound across Gwangju and South Jeolla.

While Muan International Airport has been out of service for a year, local communities are calling for the swift normalization of service. Earlier this month, some residents issued a joint statement that said the prolonged airport closure caused “severe harm” to people working in the local tourism industry.

On Dec. 17, the national government signed an agreement with Gwangju city and the South Jeolla provincial government to relocate Gwangju’s military air base to Muan Airport. The memorandum included a provision to rename Muan International Airport to “Kim Dae-jung Airport,” after the late Korean president, who was born in Muan.

All these potential changes might change the course of Park and other bereaved families’ lives — once again.

But even so, Park says he has no intention of leaving.

“If I am evicted from the airport, I have to go back to my home,” Park said. “But what would I do at home?”

Handwritten letters delivering condolence to the victims of the Jeju Air crash cover the glass railing on a staircase at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla on Dec. 22. [LEE SOO-JUNG]

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]

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A year after the Jeju Air disaster, Muan Airport remains home for one man grieving loss of his family

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