The authorities have tentatively identified the remains of 174 out of 179 persons, who died on December 29 in the crash of a South Korean Jeju Air plane, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday. TASR informs about it according to a report by the Jonhap agency.
During a briefing for the victims’ families at Muan International Airport, the ministry said it was still verifying the identities of the remaining five victims. “Thirty-two persons could not be identified based on fingerprints. In the first round, we identified 17 of them using DNA tests, and in the second round another ten. We still have to confirm the remaining five people due to discrepancies in the DNA results,” explained the ministry. Authorities are keeping the remains of the victims in a temporary cold storage facility in the airport’s hangar.
The bodies of four of the identified victims have already been handed over to their families by the local authorities. The organization of funerals could therefore begin on Tuesday in the hometowns of the deceased. However, the complete identification and process of handing over the remains to relatives it can take up to ten days given that most of the victims were badly charred, reminds Jonhap.
A team consisting of representatives of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing has already arrived at the scene of the accident. His role is to assist local authorities with investigations.
Only two people survived the accident of a South Korean airliner with 181 people on board on Sunday. South Korea’s worst air disaster occurred at Muan Airport in the southwest of the country, where the plane skidded off the runway while landing without the landing gear extended, hit a concrete wall and exploded. The causes of the tragedy are being investigated.
