South Korean police have raided Muan International Airport (MWX), the Jeju Air office and other locations as part of an investigation into the fatal Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people on December 29, 2024.
The Jeonnam Provincial Police conducted search and seizure operations at the airport in southwest South Korea, the Seoul office of Jeju Air and the Muan office of the Busan Regional Office of Aviation, according to a report by Yonhap News, a South Korean news agency, on January 2, 2025.
The search warrant was issued on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, officials said.
On December 31, 2024, a team of investigators from the United States government and Boeing arrived at the site of the Jeju Air crash at Muan International Airport to participate in the investigation into the accident.
As of January 2, 2024, investigators have successfully completed converting data from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the crashed aircraft, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) confirmed in a statement seen by Yonhap News. The device was recovered in relatively intact condition on the day of the crash and it “contains up to two hours of recordings”, the ministry added.
The second black box, the flight data recorder (FDR), will be sent to the headquarters of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington for analysis after suffering some exterior damage. The device was also found to be missing a connector that links its data storage unit to the power supply.
MOLIT said it has also begun on-site inspections of air navigation safety facilities at airports across the country. This includes inspecting localizer equipment, which has been identified as a factor that exacerbated the Jeju Air crash.
On December 29, 2024, a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 flying from Bangkok, Thailand, came off the runway and burst into flames after crashing into the outer wall of Muan International Airport during a belly landing. 179 of the 181 people on board were killed, making it the one of South Korea’s deadliest crashes.