[Anchor]
Regarding the Muan passenger plane crash that claimed 179 lives at the end of the year before last, police have forwarded seven Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport officials to prosecutors. Investigators found that these officials drew up false documents claiming the Muan Airport facilities were lawful, even while knowing they did not meet regulations.
Reporter Jeong Jiyeon has the details.
[Reporter]
These are press reference materials distributed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to the press corps on December 30 and 31, 2024, immediately following the Muan Airport passenger plane crash.
The headlines stated, "The localizer at Muan Airport was installed in accordance with relevant regulations."
The ministry explained that because the localizer at Muan Airport was installed outside the runway safety area, regulations requiring it to be "installed with materials and structures that break easily upon aircraft impact" did not apply.
However, the National Police Agency's special investigation unit concluded that following consecutive media reports pointing out problems with the localizer that the crashed aircraft struck, the documents were drafted by selectively citing and interpreting content favorable to the ministry while omitting unfavorable regulations.
[Han Donghoon / Head of the Special Investigation Unit for the Muan Airport Passenger Plane Crash: Meetings were continuously held at the accident response headquarters. Records show meetings lasted for over three and a half hours. Yet, they completely left this information out when creating the press reference materials. Therefore, we are left in a situation where we cannot help but suspect intentional omission.]
Police pointed out that they also confirmed circumstances showing the ministry systematically covered up issues afterwards, such as preparing response logics regarding the illegality of the localizer to evade responsibility.
Consequently, the special investigation unit forwarded seven Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport officials who drafted or final-reviewed the documents to prosecutors without detention on charges of creating and uttering false official documents.
Bereaved families of the disaster strongly criticized the outcome, calling it "a tail-cutting investigation that excluded the minister and vice minister."
[Kim Yujin / Representative of the Bereaved Families Association: Our position is that the full scope of how many cover-ups took place, and the organized circumstances of covering things up while only rushing to handle the disaster, must be completely brought to light.]
The special investigation unit plans to continue its investigation to determine the exact cause of the disaster.
(Camera Reporter: Yang Jihoon | Video Editor: Yoon Taeho | Designer: Park Cheonwoong)
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