The man who showed the world South Korea’s deadly plane crash

SEOUL – On the morning of Dec 29 that the ill-fated Jeju Air flight was headed to its destination in south-western South Korea, Mr Lee Geun-young was near the airport, getting ready to open a restaurant serving mud-flat octopus, a local delicacy.

Mr Lee’s restaurant, along a road about 300m from Muan International Airport where the plane was about to land, has a clear view of the southern end of the runway, close to the water.

The 48-year-old recalled it was a beautiful, sunny morning, and that he had seen birds at a nearby beach.

In half an hour, Jeju Air Flight 2216 would crash, bursting into flames after striking a concrete structure at the end of the runway, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was the worst air disaster ever on South Korean soil.

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr Lee described how he was first alerted to the plane’s approach when he heard loud sounds while working in the kitchen and noticed it flying low over his restaurant.

He shot videos that were among the first that the world saw of the crash, as well as that of firefighters rushing to put out the blaze. He talked about the challenge of dealing with the shock of what he had seen.

The transcript of this interview has been trimmed and edited for clarity.

‘There was something definitely wrong with the plane.’

“Around 8.57am, I heard bangs. They sounded like incomplete combustion from motorbikes but louder and unfamiliar. I often hear guns being fired to chase away birds, as well as noise from different construction work currently going on for runway expansion, road expansion, bullet train construction and such, as part of what I think is a project for a special zone surrounding the airport.

“But never have I heard that kind of banging noise. I thought it was strange, so I left my kitchen and went outside to the restaurant carpark and looked up at the sky.

“I saw the airplane. It was above my restaurant instead of over the runway. And the plane was tilted a bit to the right. It looked to me like the plane was about to make a landing, only towards my restaurant rather than towards the runway.

“I see planes over the runway frequently, including ones used for practices, and have a feel for the altitude when planes are about to land. But I have never, before this time, seen a plane fly so low and over my restaurant at that.

“It felt very low. I thought that was strange and went to the back of my restaurant and watched the back of the plane.

“The plane was higher in the sky than when I had observed it initially, and as it ascended, it was making a circle towards the right, doing a U-turn. It felt like this circle was a really small one, unlike the big circles that the trainee planes make that I had often witnessed in the sky. I felt that there was something definitely wrong with this plane and thought that I should take a video. That’s why I walked up to the rooftop.

“On the rooftop, I shot the first video.”

‘Do I need to get out of here?’

“One or two seconds after the crash, I felt a sudden rush of heat on my face, like you would when you open the door to a sauna. ‘Do I need to get out of here?’ I thought.

“I saw two or three residual blasts during this time. The first blast – that you see in the video – was so big that I could see fragments spurting.

“And I think I saw some debris. When the smaller blasts occurred, I saw only smoke and flames.

“I then came down from my restaurant building rooftop and walked over to the rooftop of another building that was closer to the airport. I took another video. I continued to feel the heat.

“I felt it after I came down from the rooftop, too, when I took another video. Smoke and flames continued. The firefighter trucks couldn’t go near the site. They spread the water from about 30m to 40m away.”

‘I choke up.’

“I couldn’t sleep last night. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing after-images of the blast from the crash. I stared at my phone and the news because I couldn’t go to sleep. At 6am on Dec 30, I decided to get up and go to my restaurant. I drank alcohol this evening, hoping it would help me sleep tonight.

“I am actually alone at the moment because my wife is over at my in-laws. I felt a little better after talking to my wife over the phone about how I had felt that day. Every time I go on the internet and see the news of the plane crash or related footage, I choke up.” NYTIMES