Seoul: A government panel investigating the Jeju Air plane crash in late 2024 announced it will hold a public hearing early next month to disclose the interim results of its investigation. The Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB), affiliated with the transport ministry, confirmed that the public hearing will take place in Seoul on December 4 and 5. The investigation focuses on the fatal accident at Muan International Airport on December 29 of the previous year, which resulted in the deaths of 179 passengers and crew members.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the group of bereaved families plans to boycott and obstruct the public hearing, raising concerns about the neutrality and independence of the ARAIB. The incident involved a Jeju Air jet from Bangkok that caught fire after crashing into a concrete structure associated with the runway's localizer. The plane had overshot the runway during an emergency belly landing at the airport, located approximately 290 kilometers south of Seoul.
The ARAIB stated that the public hearing, which represents the eighth step in a 12-step aircraft accident investigation process, aims to confirm the facts gathered thus far and perform technical verification. The hearing will include sessions on bird strikes and localizer facilities on December 4, followed by discussions on aircraft fuselage and aviation on December 5. The board anticipates that these sessions will enable public verification of the technical issues and facts confirmed so far.
Despite these plans, the bereaved families' group has demanded the cancellation of the public hearing, citing a lack of trust in the ARAIB's investigation results. Kim Yu-jin, head of the bereaved families' group, expressed skepticism about the investigation's integrity, arguing that the transport ministry, which oversees the ARAIB, should be held accountable for the accident. The families are calling for the suspension of the investigation process until the ARAIB's jurisdiction is transferred to the prime minister's office.