Victims’ families accuse accident investigation body of ‘self-investigation’ and rushing probe to ‘distort the truth’
Families of victims of last year’s Jeju Air crash began a sit-in protest Monday outside the Presidential Office in Seoul, shaving their heads as they called for an independent investigation and a delay to the government’s interim report on the accident.
In cold winter winds, six of the victims' relatives sat in a line as monks shaved their heads, beginning the protest with a collective head-shaving ceremony. Some wailed as hair fell to the pavement -- an act they described as a plea for truth and for an investigation free from government influence.
The families are demanding that authorities postpone the release of the interim investigation report, currently scheduled for Dec. 4-5, and transfer the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board out of the oversight of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. They argue the board should instead be placed under the Prime Minister’s Office to ensure impartiality.
The current structure -- in which the Transport Ministry oversees both aviation safety policy and the probe into the disaster -- amounts to a “self-investigation,” they say. The families have also criticized the process around the upcoming public hearing, claiming they were told they cannot ask questions and have not been given access to any draft findings.
Officials have said the rules require them to publish interim findings within a year of the incident. But the families counter that the agency has previously delayed interim announcements in 78 percent of cases, and that it is required to provide victims with a factual report beforehand -- a step they claim has been skipped.
They claim the investigation board is trying to end the case quickly by blaming the entire accident on just the pilot and a bird strike -- without addressing the plane's collision with a concrete wall, which the families claim made the accident more deadly.
The families are also calling for a direct meeting with President Lee Jae Myung.
The sit-in is expected to continue indefinitely until those demands are met. Meanwhile, lawmakers are reviewing a bill that would transfer the investigative body to the prime minister’s office.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com
