The previous president of the corporate that operates the South Korean airport the place a Jeju Air jet crash-landed final month has been discovered useless in his dwelling, the police mentioned on Wednesday.
Son Chang-wan, who was the president of Korea Airports Company from 2018 to 2022, was present in his residence in Gunpo, a metropolis about 14 miles south of Seoul, on Tuesday night. The police mentioned there was no proof of homicide or intrusion into his dwelling and referred to as his loss of life an obvious suicide.
Mr. Son was in workplace when a renovation of the Muan Worldwide Airport, the location of the Dec. 29 Jeju Air disaster in which 179 people were killed, started in 2020. However he was not a topic of an investigation into the crash being carried out by the Jeonnam Provincial Police, in accordance with an company spokesperson.
Korea Airports Company is a government-owned firm that operates greater than a dozen airports, together with Muan. The corporate mentioned that as a result of Mr. Son’s loss of life was a private matter, it didn’t have an official assertion on it.
One explicit topic of investigations into the crash, which concerned a Boeing 737-800, is a concrete wall on the Muan airport that contained an antenna array used to information planes throughout touchdown. Jeju Air’s Flight 7C2216 skidded into the wall at excessive velocity and exploded, killing all however two of the airplane’s passenger and crew.
It was the worst aviation catastrophe on South Korean soil and the deadliest worldwide since that of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 folks onboard died.
Korea Airports Company’s security requirements have come into query, with critics arguing that if the antenna array had been put in on a extra simply breakable mount, as in lots of different airports, the catastrophe might need been much less extreme.
Authorities officers have mentioned that the construction was in-built accordance with security rules. However an inspection by the transportation ministry revealed that seven of the nation’s airports, together with the one in Muan, didn’t meet security requirements and wanted to improve their runway amenities.
On Wednesday, the transportation ministry mentioned it might change the prevailing concrete construction in Muan with one that’s easier to interrupt. The ministry additionally mentioned that plans had been underway to improve localizers at airports to be manufactured from lighter, metal buildings and lengthen security zones on the finish of some runways to a minimal of just about 790 toes. The Muan runway is because of stay closed till mid-April.
A staff of aviation officers from South Korea, america and Boeing are investigating the accident. Their efforts have already been hindered by the failure of a flight recorder that stopped working minutes earlier than the crash.
The police are conducting a separate investigation and have barred Jeju Air’s chief government from leaving the nation.
