Acting President Choi Sang-mok speaks at a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the government complex in Seoul, Thursday. (Yonhap)
Acting President Choi Sang-mok speaks at a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the government complex in Seoul, Thursday. (Yonhap)

The South Korean government is to implement measures to help the families of the 179 victims who lost their lives in Dec. 29's Jeju Air plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, such as providing emergency subsidies and access to consultations on tax cuts.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok convened a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the government complex in Seoul on Thursday to discuss the response for the families.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety is to assist local governments in distributing emergency subsidies to the families of the victims experiencing financial difficulties as they cope with the accident. The families can access consultations on deferring payments or receiving reductions on national taxes. Consultations on local taxes have also been available, the government explained.

The Korea Communications Commission further requested program providers, such as the media, adhere to the principles of disaster reporting to prevent secondary victimization of the bereaved.

“Related authorities should focus their capabilities on helping the (remains of the) victims' return to their families, and to provide the needed resources for the bereaved to avoid difficulties in the funeral process,” Choi said at the meeting.

Choi further called for a swift investigation of the accident.

“The data extracted from the voice recorder will be converted into audio format by tomorrow and the US National Transportation Safety Board will start the analysis of the flight data recorder in attendance of Korean investigators,” Choi said.

“If any irregularities are found in the ongoing emergency inspection of 101 planes under six carriers, please take immediate action."

Following the deadly accident, the Korean government has ordered the launch of an emergency inspection of all Boeing 737-800 models operated by domestic carriers, mainly examining the landing gear, which failed to deploy properly in the case of the Jeju Air plane crash. The plane involved in the horrific accident was a Boeing 737-800.


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