South Korea seeks charges against officials over Jeju Air crash statements

Seoul,UPDATED: Aug 27, 2026 09:28 IST

South Korea's police said on Thursday they have sought the indictment of seven transport ministry officials over media statements linked to the 2024 Jeju Air crash, which killed 179 of the 181 people on board. The officials are accused of issuing statements that wrongly said airport equipment involved in the crash met domestic and international rules.

The Boeing 737-800, operated by Jeju Air, skidded off the runway at Muan Airport in southern South Korea after its landing gear failed to deploy. It crashed into a concrete structure and caught fire, in what was South Korea's deadliest aviation disaster since 1997.

Authorities have found traces of bird strike in the plane's engines, while the aircraft's two black boxes stopped recording about four minutes before the crash. Many experts have said the concrete structure, which housed a set of antennas called a localiser that helps guide aircraft during landing, was also a factor because it should have been built with more easily breakable materials.

Police said the seven officials were involved in preparing media statements that said the localisers had been installed in line with relevant domestic and international regulations, although that was not true. They said the cases had been referred to prosecutors, with a request to indict the seven on a criminal charge of falsifying official documents. The punishment on conviction could be up to seven years in prison. The transport ministry said it had no comment on the police announcement.

Police also said they were investigating nearly 70 other people, including those involved in installing the localisers and running Muan airport. No exact formal cause of the crash has been announced so far, and no one has yet been legally prosecuted.

Last year, the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board had planned to announce initial findings that both engines had sustained bird strikes and that the pilots had shut down the less damaged engine shortly before the crash-landing. The proposed findings, which suggested human error, triggered strong protests from bereaved families and fellow pilots, who accused authorities of trying to shift responsibility to the dead pilots. The board later cancelled the announcement. Overall, the case remains under investigation, with police action now focused on officials linked to statements about whether the airport equipment complied with the rules.

With PTI Inputs

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