SEOUL, South Korea: Families of victims of December’s devastating plane crash in South Korea have filed a complaint against 15 people including the transport minister and the airline chief who they believe are responsible for the disaster that killed all but two of the 181 people on board.
Police and government officials have already been investigating the Jeju Air crash, so the complaint is largely seen as a symbolic step calling for a swifter and more thorough probe. Many bereaved families complain of what they see as a lack of meaningful progress in efforts to determine what caused the disaster and who is responsible.
On Tuesday, 72 bereaved relatives submitted the complaint to the Jeonnam Provincial Police agency in southern South Korea, according to their lawyers and police.
The 15 people cited in the complaint include the transport minister, Jeju Air’s president and airline officials handling maintenance and safety issues, along with officials at Muan International Airport who are responsible for preventing bird strikes, air traffic control and facility management, according to a statement from a lawyers’ group supporting the relatives.
The statement said the crash was “not a simple accident but a grave public disaster caused by negligent management of risks that must be prevented.”
“Four months after the disaster, we can’t help feeling deep anger and despair over the fact that there has been little progress” in the investigation, Kim Da-hye, a bereaved family member, said in the statement.
Lawyer Lee So-Ah said Wednesday the complaint would formally require police to brief bereaved families of their investigation, though police have so far only voluntarily done so.
The Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air skidded off the runaway at the Muan airport on Dec. 29 after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames.
Authorities have since said they found traces of bird strike in the plane’s engines and that the plane’s two black boxes stopped recording about 4 minutes before the crash. Many analysts said the concrete structure, which housed a set of antennas called a localizer that guides aircraft during landings, should have been built with lighter materials that could break more easily upon impact.
But no exact cause of the crash has been announced and no one has been legally persecuted yet over the crash, the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 1997.
Jeonnam Provincial Police agency officials said they’ve been investigating the accident. They suggested a complex incident like the Jeju Air crash would require a lengthy investigation but declined to say when they expect to wrap up their probe.
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Families of victims in South Korea plane crash file complaint against 15 officials
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Families of victims in South Korea plane crash file complaint against 15 officials
- Police suggested a complex incident like the Jeju Air crash would require a lengthy investigation but declined to say when they expect to wrap up their probe
Russia is preparing for contacts with the United States on Ukraine, the Kremlin says
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia was preparing for contacts with the United States to get details about US talks with European powers and Ukraine on a possible peace settlement to end the Ukraine conflict.
Politico reported that US and Russian officials are expected to meet in Miami at the weekend, and that the Russian delegation would include Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
When asked about media reports about a meeting in Miami, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that contacts were planned with the United States.
“We are indeed preparing certain contacts with our American counterparts in order to receive information about the results of the work that the Americans have done with the Europeans and with Ukraine,” Peskov said.
The United States has held talks with Russia, and separately with Kyiv and European leaders, on proposals for ending the war in Ukraine but no deal has been reached.
Putin said on Wednesday that
Russia would take more land
in Ukraine by force if Kyiv and European politicians whom he cast as “young pigs” did not engage over US proposals for a peace settlement.
European leaders say they stand with Kyiv and that if Russia wins in Ukraine then Moscow will one day attack a NATO member. The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed claims that Russia would attack a NATO member as nonsense.
Russia controls 19.2 percent of Ukraine, including the Crimea peninsula which it annexed in 2014, as well as most of the eastern Donbas region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and slivers of four other regions.
Politico reported that US and Russian officials are expected to meet in Miami at the weekend, and that the Russian delegation would include Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
When asked about media reports about a meeting in Miami, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that contacts were planned with the United States.
“We are indeed preparing certain contacts with our American counterparts in order to receive information about the results of the work that the Americans have done with the Europeans and with Ukraine,” Peskov said.
The United States has held talks with Russia, and separately with Kyiv and European leaders, on proposals for ending the war in Ukraine but no deal has been reached.
Putin said on Wednesday that
Russia would take more land
in Ukraine by force if Kyiv and European politicians whom he cast as “young pigs” did not engage over US proposals for a peace settlement.
European leaders say they stand with Kyiv and that if Russia wins in Ukraine then Moscow will one day attack a NATO member. The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed claims that Russia would attack a NATO member as nonsense.
Russia controls 19.2 percent of Ukraine, including the Crimea peninsula which it annexed in 2014, as well as most of the eastern Donbas region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and slivers of four other regions.
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