Police currently investigating the explosion at the Hanwha Aerospace Daejeon plant have obtained the mobile phones of key figures, including the CEO and the head of the Daejeon plant. Police said they plan to use the collected materials to examine the cause of the accident and who is responsible for safety management.
According to the special investigative team at the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency on the 5th, police the previous day conducted searches and seizures at three locations with the Daejeon Regional Employment and Labor Office: the Hanwha Aerospace Daejeon plant, the Daejeon R&D campus, and the Seoul headquarters. Police and labor authorities seized six mobile phones and about 5,400 items of documents and electronic data.
The mobile phones are said to include devices belonging to team leader-level and higher officials responsible for safety management, including Gae Jae-ung, head of the Hanwha Aerospace Daejeon plant. The Daejeon Regional Employment and Labor Office also obtained the mobile phone of Hanwha Aerospace CEO Son Jae-il.
Police and labor authorities are conducting digital forensic analysis on the seized mobile phones. Police also plan to analyze the seized documents and electronic data to verify the work procedures and safety management system of the process where the explosion occurred, as well as the response before and after the accident.
About 50 people, including 34 police officers and 20 labor inspectors from the Daejeon Regional Employment and Labor Office, were deployed for the search and seizure. Taking into account that there is no closed-circuit (CC) TV inside the cleaning room of Building 56 where the explosion occurred, police have also secured and are reviewing CCTV footage that filmed the exterior of the building, design blueprints, and materials related to safety and health. Police are also interviewing employees from the same department as the victims as reference witnesses. Based on this, they plan to investigate the cause of the accident and who is responsible for safety management.
At about 10:59 a.m. on the 1st, an explosion occurred in the cleaning room of Building 56 at the Hanwha Aerospace Daejeon plant in Oesam-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. Five workers were killed and two were seriously or moderately injured in the accident.