'It's unbearable': Families wait to see loved ones' bodies at airport

Hundreds of grieving people camped out at Muan International Airport in South Korea are furious that they have not yet seen the bodies of their loved ones who died after a Jeju Air plane crash-landed on Sunday.

Amid angry shouts, police superintendent general Na Won-o explained that the delay was due to officials taking their time to carefully identify all 179 victims, whose bodies were badly damaged in the crash.

“Can you promise that they will be put back together?” a middle-aged man asked, visibly emotional.

Another person asked for the victims’ remains to be released as they were, but Na said officials wanted to make their best effort to collect and match as many bodies as they could.

These grim details left some family members in tears, while most sat in stunned silence, exhausted.

The Boeing 737-800, which was travelling from Bangkok to Muan International Airport, skidded off the runway after touching down and crashed into a wall shortly after 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT) on Sunday.

The accident killed 179 of the 181 people onboard, making it the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil.

Four crew members were among the victims, while two were rescued from the wreckage alive.

Among the relatives of victims that the BBC spoke to was Shin Gyu-ho, who lost his two grandsons and son-in-law.

Frustrated with how long the identification process was taking, the 64-year-old said he had thought about smashing the PA system used for police briefings in anger.

While the body of Shin’s son-in-law has been identified, he was told that his two grandsons – a high-school sophomore and a senior – were “too scattered to be recognised”.

His daughter and granddaughter have holed up in a privacy tent at the airport because “they cannot hold themselves together”, he said.

For Maeng Gi-su’s nephew and his nephew’s two sons, a celebratory trip to Thailand to mark the end of the college entrance exams ended in tragedy when all three died on the flight.

“I can’t believe the entire family has just disappeared,” Maeng, 78, told the BBC.

“My heart aches so much.”

The 179 people who died on flight 7C2216 were aged between three and 78 years old, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to Yonhap news agency. Two Thai nationals are among the dead and the rest are believed to be South Korean, authorities have said.

Five of the people who died were children under the age of 10, with the youngest passenger being a three-year-old boy.

One man in his sixties said five of his family members spanning three generations had been on the plane, including his sister-in-law, his daughter, her husband and their young children, according to Yonhap news agency.

Many of the passengers had been celebrating the Christmas holidays in Thailand and were returning home.

The cousin of one victim, Jongluk Doungmanee, told BBC Thai she was “shocked” when she heard the news.

“I had goosebumps. I couldn’t believe it,” Pornphichaya Chalermsin said.

Jongluk had been living in South Korea for the past five years working in the agriculture industry. She usually travelled to Thailand twice a year during the holidays to visit her ailing father and two children – aged 7 and 15 – from a former marriage.

She had spent over two weeks this time with her husband, who had returned to South Korea earlier in December.

Her father, who suffers from a heart disease, was “devastated” when he found out about her death, said Pornphichaya.

“It is unbearable for him. This was his youngest daughter”, she said, adding that all three of his children work abroad.

Another 71-year-old father, Jeon Je-young, told the Reuters news agency that his daughter Mi-Sook, who was identified by her fingerprints, had been on her way home after travelling with friends to Bangkok for the festivities.

“My daughter, who is only in her mid-40s, ended up like this,” he said, adding that he had last seen her on 21 December, when she brought some food and next year’s calendar to his house – that would become their last moment together.

Mi-Sook leaves behind a husband and teenage daughter.

“This is unbelievable”, said Jeon.

One woman said her sister, who had been having a tough time decided to visit Thailand as life began to improve for her.

“She’s had so many hardships and gone traveling because her situation was only just beginning to improve,” she told Yonhap news agency.

The two flight attendants who survived the crash were found in the tail end of the plane, the most intact part of the wreckage.

One was a 33-year-old man, with the surname Lee, who was rushed to a hospital in Mokpo, about 25km (15.5 mi) south of the airport, but was later transferred to Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital in the capital, Yonhap news agency reported.

“When I woke up, I had already been rescued,” he told doctors at the hospital, according to its director Ju Woong, who spoke during a press briefing.

The survivor, who suffered multiple fractures, is receiving special care due to the risk of after-effects, including total paralysis, Ju said.

The other survivor, a 25-year-old female flight attendant with the surname Koo, is being treated at Asan Medical Center in eastern Seoul, Yonhap added.

She has sustained head and ankle injuries but is reportedly in a stable condition.

It’s not yet known exactly what caused the disaster, but a number of eye witnesses say they could see that the plane was in trouble before the crash.

Restaurant owner Im Young-Hak said he initially thought it was an oil tanker accident.

“I went outside and saw thick, dark smoke. After that, I heard a loud explosion, not from the crash itself. Then there were more explosions – at least seven,” he told Reuters.

“We feel bad when accidents happen on the other side of the world, but this happened right here. It’s traumatic.”

Yoo Jae-yong, 41, who was staying near to the airport, told local media he saw a spark on the right wing shortly before the crash.

Kim Yong-cheol, 70, said the plane failed to land initially and circled back to try again.

He added that he witnessed “black smoke billowing into the sky” after hearing a “loud explosion”, Yonhap agency reported.

One firefighter who was dispatched to the scene told Reuters he had never seen something “on this scale”.

BBC reporters on the ground have said the sounds of family members crying echoed through the terminal on Sunday evening, while others are angry at how long it is taking to identify the bodies.

Hundreds remain at Muan International Airport waiting for loved ones to be identified.

Some have given DNA saliva samples to officials to help identify the bodies of victims, and the government has offered funeral services and temporary housing to bereaved families.

A national period of mourning has also been declared for the next seven days.

But for all the loved ones of those who died, many questions still remain – not least the cause of the crash, and whether it could have been averted.

“The water near the airport is not deep,” Jeon told Reuters.

“(There) are softer fields than this cement runway. Why couldn’t the pilot land there instead?”

His daughter Mi-Sook was almost home, so saw no reason to call and leave a final message, he says.

“She was almost home – she thought she was coming home”.

Additional Reporting by BBC Thai’s Thanyaporn Buathong