Man filmed entire crash of Korean passenger plane from 300 meters away: heat wave came over like a sauna

According to a December 31 local time press conference held by Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, Geumsan International Airport, the site of a deadly plane crash, will be closed from now until January 7, 2024, after which time it will remain closed until further notice.

On December 29, a South Korean domestic passenger plane crashed in Geumsan (in South Chungcheong Province), catching fire after its landing went awry and the aircraft flew off the end of the runway. As the wreckage hit the airport perimeter wall, the plane exploded into a giant fireball, with debris flying everywhere.

Korean investigators say the aircraft involved was Jeju Air flight 7C2216, which had been inbound from Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the crash. On board were 175 passengers and 6 crew members, all but two of whom were killed in the conflagration. This makes the incident South Korea's most fatal aviation disaster to date.

Local Man Shoots Crash Video

According to reports by the Korean right-wing daily The Chosun Ilbo, as well as the center-left Kyunghyang Shinmun, a video of the crash was filmed by a witness who was on the roof of a building approximately 300 meters away. It is believed that the film footage captured by the witness in the minutes leading up to and immediately following the crash could be the most reliable account of what happened, as investigators attempt to unravel what went wrong.

According to a translation of Chosun.com from the South China Morning Post, the footage was filmed by a 49-year-old named Lee Gyeon-eui (Korean names are given with surnames first) as he watched in horror from the roof of his restaurant.

Lee has said that he operates a restaurant near the end of Geumsan Airport's runway, about 300 meters away. He was preparing to open up shop on the morning of the crash, December 29, about 50 minutes behind schedule.

"I was about to start up the charcoal fire (for preparing grill food) around noon, when I suddenly heard a 'boom boom boooooom'" he is quoted as saying. "It sounded like explosions, with about three booms in succession. I looked up, and noticed a plane descending but not quite right. The plane normally flies along the direction of the airport runway, from right to left when being viewed from the restaurant, and it usually appears to 'fall away' a bit when landing."

"But this plane passed right over the restaurant – I had never seen this before. I watched the plane for five or ten more seconds. I could tell that the landing gear was not down – I saw the wheel housing clearly – and the plane looked to be turning slightly but not as sharply as it should have."

"I thought something just was not quite right about the plane's movements, so immediately went up to the restaurant roof, and took out the phone with the best camera. I started shooting a video from on top of the building, looking out over the end of the runway. The plane landed near the middle of the runway, and then suddenly started veering and went straight to the airport perimeter wall. It then exploded – and you could feel the heat from 300-some-odd meters out!"

Lee says that his restaurant is on the side of the airport used by commercial planes. A separate military runway is nearby, but it is rarely used. Lee says that he has never previously seen a commercial flight come in and pass close to his place of business before landing.

"It is possible that I had been asleep on previous occasions when flights like that occurred, and never realized it," Lee has said. "But I am certain that I have never observed something like that before. Also, I would like to add that the restaurant is on the second floor – I saw the plane fly straight over my building – so it was very close!"

Lee had previously been unaware that Geumsan was used by commercial planes, but that had changed for him. The day before the crash he went on to the airport roof, curious after reading news reports that a commercial flight would be arriving late morning and landing at Geumsan.

He says: "I had the feeling on the morning of the crash that something bad was going to happen, and my feelings turned out to be true. Now I cannot stop thinking about it, or get the horrific scenes out of my mind."

The explosion

Lee adds: "A very close friend of mine lost a child in the crash and is grieving terribly. I feel bad as well – why did this need to happen here at this airport? Why here, and not in a bigger airport?"

"The only thing I want from this situation is to help the accident inquiries by allowing them to watch my footage, for the benefit of aviation safety. Allowing them to study what I filmed, and why it happened, is the most that I can do, I think, even though watching it again for the accident inquiries made me shed more tears at the needless death of so many passengers and crew. The flight crashed in the exact spot where my friend owns land, and he and his child have been unable to return, despite the family being in deep mourning."

Lee also says that there was one more shocking fact about the scene – the firefighters had arrived incredibly quickly to the airport perimeter fence, but it was impossible to put out the blaze.

"For ten or 15 seconds after the explosion, I saw that emergency crews were there already, and it seemed impossible that fire personnel could arrive in just a few seconds in order to put out the conflagration – perhaps some fire department units were on the airfield already, I'm not sure," he says, as quoted on the Ministry of Transport website. "I heard later, however, that firefighting teams took about 40 minutes to fully put out the fire. I couldn't see that much. I didn't realize that people on the plane were still alive and desperately trying to escape, even as late as that!"

"When the explosion happened – it felt as I if stood close to an erupting volcano – so intense and hot was the explosion. I was 300-odd meters away but could have been burned by the blast. I can't really talk about the feelings or emotions I suffered, and I am not proud of filming these things and being one of the few who could clearly show what happened."

"But I wanted it to go right – for everyone to get off that plane safely and continue on their journeys, perhaps to a better life. I had the feeling something bad would occur, and I did want things to turn out well. Instead, I saw how things ended terribly, and all that I wanted to do was help."

Lee was speaking with Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper on the day of the crash, and said that he had previously seen ducks in groups flying around in the area.

"I have personally heard that one reason for the airplane's explosion was a strike from geese, which is not a strange occurrence," he told reporters. However, Lee added: "I personally saw that planes and ducks flew around the airport before. And on the time of the air crash, it's true that I didn't see ducks in the sky when I looked out the restaurant's window after I heard loud noises, but of course it wasn't certain that I didn't see them at all.

"I just wanted to say that I didn't see it with my eyes, so I didn't mean that it was not true as an objective statement. I'm sorry for this misunderstanding," said Lee.

Geumsan airport, where the crash occurred, is not typically used by commercial flights; the main airport for South Jeolla province, where it's located, is near the city of Mokpo, approximately 100 miles south of Seoul. In the days and weeks ahead, South Korean aviation officials will be under considerable domestic and international pressure not to repeat the failures that led to last week's air disaster.