Father of woman killed in South Korea air crash says the tragedy is unbelievable By Reuters

By Joo-min Park and Dogyun Kim

MUAN CITY, South Korea (Reuters) – John Jae Young continues to show video of the plane carrying his daughter and 180 others hitting a wall and bursting into flames at a South Korean airport.

His daughter Mi-sook died on the ship.He still can’t believe it.

“When I saw the video of the crash, the plane seemed to be out of control,” said 71-year-old Joe. “The pilots probably had no choice but to do it. My daughter, who is only 40 years old, ended up like this.”

Mi-Suk was a kind-hearted child, he said. On December 21st, he brought home food and the next year’s calendar, which became the last brief moment with him.

“She’s a lot nicer than my son, sometimes she asks me out to lunch,” John recalled, showing his recent exchanges with his daughter on a cell phone.

South Korea’s deadliest plane crash on Sunday killed 179 people when the plane belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway, erupting into a fireball at Muan International Airport.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew members, was seen skidding down the runway with no visible landing gear before crashing into navigation equipment and a wall in an explosion of fire and debris.

Only two people, both crew members, survived and are being treated for injuries.

AGE AND MULTIPLICITY

Authorities have released the names of some of those killed in the crash, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger among families of passengers gathered at the airport’s arrivals area.

They screamed, cried and collapsed on the floor of the terminal where their loved ones were to return home.

Crime scene investigators bartered saliva from the families to conduct DNA tests to identify the victims.

Jeon’s daughter was on her way home after going to Bangkok with friends for Christmas. She leaves behind a devastated family, including a husband and teenage daughter.

“The water is not deep at the airport. It’s softer than this cement runway. Why couldn’t the pilot land there?”

Fire officials said the plane was “almost completely destroyed” in the crash.

“The two collisions and explosions threw most of the passengers out of the plane, although the two crew members fortunately survived in the tail,” said Muan firefighter Yem Dong-bu, who was dispatched to the scene.

“I used to work on ambulances, so I’ve seen terrible things like car accidents, but not on this scale,” he added.

Mi-suk has been identified through her fingerprints, and her family is looking for a funeral home near her hometown of Gwangju to take her body there.

“He was almost home, so (he saw) no need to call the family (to leave a final message). He thought he was coming home,” John said.