Relatives of victims in the Jeju Air flight tragedy at Muan International Airport on December 30
Newspaper Korea JoongAng Daily On December 30, citing information from local authorities in Yeonggwang (South Jeolla Province) and Osan (Gyeonggi Province), they confirmed that a family of 9 people, including the oldest passenger on the plane, Mr. Bae (79 years old), was present on Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 that crashed on December 29.
Mr. Bae’s family is returning to Korea after a trip at the end of 2024 to Bangkok (Thailand). KBC television station said this was Mr. Bae’s first time going abroad, and the trip was made to celebrate his birthday.
Mr. Bae went with his 68-year-old wife, two daughters, a son-in-law and four grandchildren, including a 5-year-old child.
After the accident, the whole family died, only his son-in-law remained alive because he could not join the trip. However, the son-in-law is very heartbroken because both his wife and three children have died. KBC radio said: “Yesterday, the village chief went to Muan airport and said that his son-in-law was extremely desperate, saying: ‘I should have gone with my family and died with everyone’.”
Most of the bodies of the 179 victims of the tragic accident have been identified. As of today (December 31), Korean officials began sending the victims’ bodies back to their families for burial, while investigators tried to find an explanation for what happened to the ill-fated flight.
179 people died in the Jeju Air plane crash tragedy, Korea mourned
According to the newspaper Korea JoongAng Dailysome families initially only knew that their loved ones were traveling abroad, until they received the shocking news that their loved ones were on the deadly flight.
The newspaper quoted a man named Son in Gwangju as saying that his brother-in-law went on a trip to celebrate his 60th birthday with eight friends from different countryside. The brother-in-law sent Mr. Son a photo of the sunset from the plane window to inform him that he had just returned and the plane was preparing to land.
“At first, I felt relieved because I thought they were going out to Vietnam. When my wife mentioned Bangkok, it was as if the sky had just collapsed,” Mr. Son sadly recounted.
Most of the passengers on the ill-fated flight were part of a travel package departing from Muan to Bangkok on the evening of December 25.
