Photos show youngest victim’s first trip abroad before South Korea plane crash
The youngest person to die in South Korea’s worst air disaster was flying home from his first family holiday abroad.
Ko Yoonwoo, aged three, was aboard a Jeju Air flight with parents Kang Ko, 43, and Jin Lee Seon, 37, when the airplane skidded into a barrier and burst into flames at Muan Airport on Sunday.
Just two flight attendants survived, out of 181 people on board the Boeing 737-800 as it returned from Thailand.
Kang Ko had documented the families trip on his Instagram, where he had shared a picture of Yoonwoo after he was born, and a video of him singing and dancing in a Christmas show.
One picture showed the toddler staring out the window of a plane on the way to Bangkok.
In others, Yoonwoo is seen sat upon a tiger and an elephant.
He was also pictured smiling, posing and cuddling with his mother and father at Bangkok’s Grand Palace.
In a photo caption, Kang said: ‘My son taking a night flight overseas for the first time The first stamp on my first passport bang!!
‘Went to the zoo, walked with tigers, and climbed on a tiger. Ridden an elephant, saw a crocodile, saw a flamingo. I was so excited to see all the animals I wanted to see up close.
‘Got to go shopping and eat delicious food. At the Skywalk, the highest observation deck in Bangkok. I jumped and lay down without fear, saying “ice floor”.
‘I was tired from the full schedule. But I was happy thanks to my son who played with me.’
Others also lost entire generations of their families in South Korea’s deadliest aviation disaster.
Maeng Gi-su, 78, lost his nephew and his nephew’s two sons. He said: ‘I can’t believe the entire family has just disappeared. My heart aches so much.’
Sunday’s fatal crash has raised concerns around safety standards and regulatory compliance.
Muan International Airport failed to meet safety standards for installing a critical landing guidance system known as a localiser, The Chosun Daily reported.
It had installed the localiser 202 meters from the southern end of the runway and 199 meters from the northern end, despite regulations requiring a safety area of 240 meters.
Whether this would have prevented the airplane’s crash into an outer wall 323 meters from the runway’s end is not yet clear.
Crash investigators have started retrieving data from the cockpit voice recorder, and they are trying to extract data from a ‘black box’ which was missing a key connector.
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