The first anniversary memorial service for the "Dec. 29 Muan Airport Jeju Air passenger plane disaster" was solemnly held at Muan International Airport on the 29th.
The bereaved families' council for the Dec. 29 Muan Airport Jeju Air passenger plane disaster and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held the first anniversary memorial service at 10 a.m. on the second floor of Muan International Airport in Mangun-myeon, Muan-gun, South Jeolla Province.
Held under the theme "Remember Dec. 29, it could have been prevented. Lives could have been saved. It can be revealed," the memorial was attended by more than 1,200 people, including bereaved families; Prime Minister Kim Min-seok; National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik; and Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, as well as central and local government officials.
Before the memorial, a nationwide memorial siren sounded for one minute from 9:03 a.m., the time of the crash, and a moment of silence was observed to honor the victims.
About 40 members of a delegation, including bereaved families and representatives of the government and the National Assembly, placed chrysanthemums in turn at the floral tribute stand in front of the stage to honor the 179 victims. When a recorded video played during the ceremony, the bereaved families sobbed.
A memorial performance followed. The stage, themed "The way home," symbolically expressed the victims' final journey as they returned from Bangkok, Thailand. Singer Lee Eun-mi performed a memorial song to close the event.
Kim Yu-jin, head of the bereaved families' council for the Dec. 29 Muan Airport Jeju Air passenger plane disaster, said in a memorial address, "A year ago today, as we watched ambulances drive away after the siren was turned off, our lives completely collapsed under the caption 'all dead,'" adding, "If responsibility for the disaster is not carried out, this tragedy will never end."
After the memorial, the bereaved families visited the site of the concrete localizer facility. Earlier, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission determined that the localizer was installed in violation of relevant laws and regulations.
In particular, navigational aids installed in the runway end safety area should be made of frangible materials, but the localizer facility at Muan International Airport was installed on an embankment with concrete partition walls and a deck, meaning the embankment itself did not absorb or cushion impact in the event of an aircraft collision but instead constituted a fixed rigid structure that amplified collision energy.
On Dec. 29 last year, Jeju Air flight 7C 2216, a Boeing 737-800 passenger plane that departed Bangkok, Thailand, exploded after colliding with the localizer while attempting an emergency landing on the runway at Muan International Airport at around 9:03 a.m. Of the 181 people on board, 179 died and two were injured.
On the 22nd, the National Assembly formed the "Special Committee on the National Investigation to Uncover the Truth of the Dec. 29 Passenger Plane Disaster," chaired by Lee Yang-soo of the People Power Party. The investigation period of the special committee runs until Jan. 30, 2026, and probes will be conducted to identify the substantive cause of the disaster and determine accountability.