South Korean police seek indictments of 7 transport ministry officials over Jeju Air crash

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s police said Thursday they were seeking indictments of seven transport ministry officials over the 2024 Jeju Air crash that killed all but two of the 181 people on board.

The Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air skidded off the runaway at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames.

Authorities have found traces of bird strike in the plane’s engines and the plane’s two black boxes stopped recording about four minutes before the crash. Many experts say the concrete structure, which housed a set of antennas called a localizer that guides aircraft during landings, must be blamed for the crash as well, as they should have been built with more easily breakable materials.

Police said Thursday the seven officials were involved in the production of media statements that stated the localizers were installed in accordance with relevant domestic and international regulations, though that was not true.

Police said they referred the cases to prosecutors, asking for the seven officials to be indicted on a criminal charge of falsifying official documents. The penalty upon conviction could be up to seven years in prison. The Transport Ministry said it had no comment on the police announcement.

Police said they were investigating nearly 70 other people, including those involved in installation of the localizers or operations of the Muan airport.

The crash was South Korea's deadliest aviation disaster since 1997. But no exact, formal cause of the crash has been announced and no one has been legally prosecuted yet.

Last year, the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board had planned to announce initial investigation results showing both of the plane's engines sustained bird strikes and the pilots turned off the less-damaged one just before the crash-landing. The initial finding, which implied human errors, drew vehement protests from bereaved families and fellow pilots who accused authorities of trying to shift responsibility to the dead pilots. The investigation board later canceled the announcement.