飞机坠毁179 人丧生，韩国民众愤怒而痛苦

【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 30 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）韩国务安——这架载有 181 名乘客的客机在跑道上高速滑行，撞上墙壁后爆炸起火。《纽约时报》记者Choe Sang-Hun、John Yoon 和 Jin Yu Young对此作了下述详细报道。

两名机组人员从燃烧的飞机尾部被救出，但在周日接下来的几个小时里，令人沮丧的消息传到了韩国西南部务安国际机场焦虑不安的遇难者亲属耳中。

截至周日晚间，机上其余 179 名乘客全部确认遇难。这架由广受欢迎的廉价航空公司济州航空运营的飞机坠毁，是近三十年来韩国航空公司遭遇的最严重空难，也是韩国本土有史以来最严重的空难。

官员们正在调查飞机迫降的原因，包括起落架为何出现故障以及飞机是否被鸟撞。

随着人们对坠机原因的猜测不断升温，数百名乘客家属痛苦地等待着亲人从国外旅行归来的消息。周日下午，务安机场到处都是哭喊声。一名年轻女子安慰一名为儿子哭泣的老妇人。两名哭泣的妇女拥抱在一起。

官员们表示，截至周日晚上，只有 65 名死者可以通过指纹和其他方式被确认身份。十几具尸体受损严重，官员们无法立即确定他们的性别。已确认身份的人员包括一名 23 岁的空乘人员和一名 78 岁的男性乘客。

68 岁的张九浩从附近城市木浦的家中赶来，在抵达大厅里，他坐在泪眼婆娑的妻子旁边，表情严肃。他说，他的五个亲戚从度假归来时也在飞机上：他妻子的妹妹、女儿、女婿和两个孙子。

“我们惊呆了，”他说。

在机场的一个封闭区域，官员们正在确认从坠机现场找到的尸体身份。当官员们在抵达大厅的墙上张贴已确认遇难者的名字时，人们纷纷赶来查看名单。

这场灾难让韩国震惊不已，而此时，韩国正努力应对总统尹锡烈本月宣布戒严并实施了一场不幸的短暂戒严令，随后又遭到弹劾，从而引发了一场政治危机。副总理崔相默是一名未经选举的官员，他赶赴现场应对自周五就任代理总统以来面临的最大挑战。

这次空难对韩国来说尤其令人震惊，因为在 1990 年代及之前发生过一系列致命空难之后，韩国从未发生过重大航空灾难。上一次涉及韩国航空公司的重大航空事故是 1997 年，一架大韩航空客机撞上西太平洋美国领土关岛的一座小山，机上 254 人中有 229 人丧生。

济州航空周日坠机事件可能是自 2018 年狮航 610 航班坠入爪哇海，机上 189 人全部遇难以来全球最致命的空难。

这似乎也是济州航空的第一次致命事故，该航空公司成立于 2005 年，飞往亚洲数十个国家。济州航空首席执行官金奕培公开为坠机事件道歉，并鞠躬致意。他表示，坠机的具体原因尚不清楚。

这架飞机是济州航空 7C2216 航班，是一架波音 737-800 型客机，从曼谷起飞，机上载有 175 名乘客和 6 名机组人员。除两名泰国人外，所有乘客均为韩国人。飞机在韩国西南部务安降落时遇到麻烦。

事故镜头显示，一架白色和橙色的飞机以机腹为轴在跑道上加速，直到撞上跑道尽头的护栏，爆炸成一个火球。当地新闻媒体援引目击者对爆炸声的描述，并发布了现场上空大量黑烟的照片。

负责现场搜救行动的官员李正铉说，飞机已碎成许多碎片，只能立即辨认出机尾。幸存的两名机组人员已从机尾部分获救。

“我们无法辨认机身的其余部分，”李说。

随着死亡人数的增加，坠机前最后时刻发生的事情的细节开始浮出水面。

国土交通部航空政策主管朱钟完表示，飞机准备降落时，机场警告飞行员可能会发生鸟击。MBC-TV 报道称，大约在这个时候，目击者听到了类似爆炸的巨大声音。该频道播出的画面显示，飞机的一个引擎短暂地冒出火焰。

朱钟完说，飞机在机场发出警告后不久发出求救信号，然后紧急降落。

务安附近和朝鲜半岛西海岸大部分地区的泥泞潮滩是候鸟最喜欢的栖息地。当地媒体的照片显示，周日成群的鸟儿在机场附近飞行。

英国白金汉郡新大学航空运营高级讲师 Marco Chan 表示，有证据表明，飞机在进近过程中遇到了一群鸟，导致疑似鸟儿进入发动机。

陈教授在大学发来的一份分析报告中表示，损坏可能导致液压系统故障，这可以解释无法展开起落架的原因。

澳大利亚布里斯班航空咨询公司 Aviation Projects 的董事总经理 Keith Tonkin 在查看了坠机视频后表示，飞机似乎也没有启动襟翼。他说，这意味着当飞机在跑道上机腹着地时，飞机的速度比正常着陆速度要快。

航空专家表示，对坠机原因的调查可能需要数年时间。

（故事到此结束。以下为可选材料。）

在务安机场，当官员告诉人群他们已经确认了一些人的身份并宣布了他们的名字时，一些人开始哭泣。其他人变得愤怒，并沮丧地大声喊道：“大声说出来！”“把名字打印出来！”坠机发生几个小时后，人们表达了对等待亲属消息这么长时间的沮丧。 “把名单给我们，这样我们至少能找到医院！”一名妇女喊道。

人们围在一名官员周围，查看他们的亲属是否在已确认死亡的名单上。一些亲属向机场官员提供了 DNA 样本，以帮助辨认尸体。

周日晚上，在出发大厅，临时帐篷被搭起，供飞机乘客和机组人员的家属使用。在机场外，汽车排成队，进入拥挤的停车场。有些汽车停在通往航站楼的路肩上，人们整晚都涌入机场。

冲到机场六个小时后，张成泽和他的妻子仍在等待亲属的身份确认。

“我预计这将是一个漫长的夜晚，”他说。

本文最初发表于《纽约时报》。

题图：消防员于 12 月 30 日在韩国务安县务安国际机场检查济州航空 2216 号航班的残骸。SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

附原英文报道：

Anger and agony in South Korea after plane crash-lands, killing 179

By Choe Sang-Hun, John Yoon and Jin Yu Young New York Times,Updated December 30, 2024 

Firefighters inspect the wreckage of Jeju Air Co. Flight 2216 at Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Korea, on Dec. 30.SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

MUAN, South Korea — The passenger plane with 181 people onboard skidded on the runway at a high speed and slammed into a wall before exploding into flames.

Two crew members were rescued alive from the tail of the burning plane, but over the ensuing hours on Sunday, grim news trickled out to anxious relatives at Muan International Airport, in southwestern South Korea.

By late Sunday, all of the remaining 179 people onboard were confirmed dead, making the crash of the plane — flown by the popular low-cost carrier Jeju Air — the worst aviation disaster involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades and the worst ever on South Korean soil.

Officials were investigating what caused the plane to crash-land, including why its landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned and whether the plane had been struck by birds.

As speculation swirled about the cause of the crash, hundreds of family members of passengers endured the painful wait for news of their loved ones returning home from a trip abroad. Wails and screams filled the Muan airport on Sunday afternoon. A young woman comforted an older woman weeping about her son. Two crying women embraced each other.

By Sunday evening, only 65 of the dead could be identified through their fingerprints and other means, officials said. A dozen bodies were so badly damaged that officials could not immediately identify their gender. Those who were identified included a 23-year-old flight attendant and a 78-year-old male passenger.

Jang Gu-ho, 68, sat stoically in the arrivals hall next to his teary-eyed wife after rushing from his home in the nearby city of Mokpo. He said five of his relatives had been on the plane returning from a vacation: his wife’s sister, her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren.

“We’re thunderstruck,” he said.

In a closed area of the airport, officials were working to identify the bodies they recovered from the crash site. When officials posted on the walls of the arrivals hall the names of those confirmed dead, people rushed to check the lists.

The disaster left South Korea in shock at a time when the country was grappling with a political crisis unleashed by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated and short-lived declaration of martial law and his subsequent impeachment this month. Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, an unelected official, rushed to the scene to deal with his biggest challenge since he took office as acting president on Friday.

The plane crash was especially shocking for the country because it has had no major aviation disaster after a spate of deadly air accidents in the 1990s and earlier. In the last major aviation accident involving a South Korean airline, a Korean Air jet slammed into a hill in Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, in 1997, killing 229 of the 254 people on board.

The crash of the Jeju Air plane on Sunday was likely the deadliest worldwide since that of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 people on board died as the plane plunged into the Java Sea.

It also appeared to have been the first fatal one for Jeju Air, which was established in 2005 and flies to dozens of countries in Asia. Kim E-bae, the chief executive of Jeju Air, bowed as he publicly apologized for the crash. He said that the exact cause of the crash was unclear.

The plane, Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800 jet, had taken off from Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew members. All passengers were South Koreans, except for two Thai nationals. The jet was landing at Muan, in southwestern South Korea, when it ran into trouble.

Footage of the accident showed a white-and-orange plane speeding down a runway on its belly until it rammed into a barrier at the end of the runway, exploding into a fireball. Local news media cited witnesses describing the sound of the explosion and published photographs of large plumes of black smoke over the site.

The plane had broken into so many pieces that only its tail was immediately identifiable, said Lee Jeong-hyeon, an official in charge of search and rescue operations at the scene. The two crew members who survived had been rescued from the tail section.

“We could not recognize the rest of the fuselage,” Lee said.

As the death toll climbed, details of what happened in the final moments before the crash began to emerge.

As the plane was preparing to land, the airport warned the pilots about a potential bird strike, said Ju Jong-wan, a director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Around this time, witnesses heard loud explosion-like sounds, MBC-TV reported. The channel broadcast footage showing flames trailing briefly from one of the plane’s engines.

The plane issued a mayday alert shortly after the warning from the airport, then crash-landed, Ju said.

The muddy tidal flats near Muan and much of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula are favorite resting places for migrant birds. Photographs in local media showed flocks of birds flying near the airport on Sunday.

Evidence suggested that the aircraft encountered a flock of birds during its approach, leading to suspected bird ingestion into the engines, said Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at the U.K.-based Buckinghamshire New University.

The damage may have caused a hydraulic system failure, which could explain the inability to deploy the landing gear, Chan said in an analysis emailed by his university.

The plane also did not appear to have activated its wing flaps, said Keith Tonkin, the managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting company in Brisbane, Australia, who reviewed video of the crash. That meant it was traveling faster than normal landing speed when it belly flopped on the runway, he said.

Aviation experts said investigations into the causes of crashes can take years.

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.)

At the Muan airport, as officials told the crowd that they had confirmed the identities of some of the people, and announced their names, some began to cry. Others grew angry and raised their voices in frustration: “Speak up!” “Print out the names!” Several hours after the crash, people expressed frustration that they had to wait so long for news about their relatives. “Let us have the list so we can at least find a hospital!” one woman shouted.

People crowded around an official to check if their relatives were on a list of those confirmed dead. Some relatives had given DNA samples to officials at the airport to help identify the bodies.

In the departures hall, temporary tents were set up on Sunday evening for families of the plane’s passengers and crew. Outside the airport, cars lined up to enter the packed parking lots. Some parked on the shoulders of the roads leading to the terminal, and people continued to stream into the airport through the evening.

Six hours after they dashed to the airport, Jang and his wife were still waiting for their relatives to be identified.

“I’m expecting it to be a long night,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.