Johannesburg – The former president of the company that operated the airport in South Korea where the Jeju Air plane crashed last month was found dead in his home, police said on Wednesday.
Son Chang-wan, who was president of the Korea Airports Corporation from 2018 to 2022, was found at his residence in Gunpo, a city 14 kilometers south of Seoul, on Tuesday evening. Police said there was no evidence of murder or burglary and called his death a suicide.
Mr Son was in office when the renovation of Muan International Airport, the site of the December 29 Jeju Air disaster that killed 179 people, began in 2020. But he was not under investigation for the accident. by Jeonnam provincial police, according to the agency’s spokesperson.
Korea Airports Corporation is a state-owned company that operates more than a dozen airports, including Muan. The company said that because the death of Mr. Son it was a personal matter, there is no official statement about it.
One subject of the investigation into the crash, involving the Boeing 737-800, is a concrete wall at Muan Airport that contains an antenna used to guide planes during landing. Jeju Air’s Flight 7C2216 crashed into a wall at high speed and exploded, killing all but two passengers and crew.
It was the world’s worst air disaster in South Korea and the world’s deadliest since Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 people died.
The safety standards of the Korea Airports Corporation are still questionable, with critics arguing that if the antenna had been installed in a fragile area, as in many other airports, the disaster could have been more severe.
Government officials said the building was built in compliance with safety regulations. But an inspection by the transport ministry revealed that the nation’s seven airports, including Muan, do not meet safety standards and need to improve their airport facilities.
On Wednesday, the Department of Transport said it will replace the existing concrete structure in Muan with one that is easy to break. The department also said that plans are underway to upgrade the runways at the airports to be made of lighter, steel materials and to increase the safety clearances at the ends of some runways to at least 790 feet. The Muan runway should remain closed until mid-April.
A team of South Korean, American and Boeing aviation officials is investigating the crash. Their efforts were hampered by the failure of the flight recorder, which stopped a few minutes before the crash.
Police are conducting a separate investigation and have barred Jeju Air’s chief executive from leaving the country.
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