Jeju Air Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kim E-bae is now barred from leaving the country as the investigation team has imposed a travel ban on him, said the police on Thursday (Jan 2).

Advertisment

This comes after one of the airline's planes crashed last week, killing 179 people. 

"The... investigation team imposed a travel ban on two individuals, including Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae," said the police in South Jeolla Province in Muan City where the incident took place.

Also read: South Korean plane crash: Over 60,000 people cancel Jeju Air flight reservations after tragedy, says report

Advertisment

South Korea police raid Jeju Air, airport

South Korean police on Thursday raided the offices of Jeju Air and the operator of Muan International Airport.

The South Korea-bound plane had 181 passengers aboard along with the crew that had departed from Thailand on Sunday (Dec 29).

Advertisment

The ill-fated flight issued a mayday call after which it made a belly landing before slamming into a barrier.

The incident killed all on board except for two flight attendants.

The authorities carried out search and seizure operations at Muan airport, a regional aviation office in the southwestern city, and Jeju Air's office in the capital Seoul, said police on Thursday.

"The police plan to swiftly and rigorously determine the cause and responsibility for this accident in accordance with the law and principles," said police as per news agency AFP.

The stairs inside the airport were covered in colourful Post-it notes left by mourners. 

"Honey, I miss you way too much," one of them said.

"Even if you faced lonely and painful moments in death, may you now soar like a butterfly," another read.

Data extracted from black box

Meanwhile, the investigators have extracted data from one of two black boxes retrieved from the crashed Jeju Air plane.

The data extracted from the cockpit voice recorder will be converted into an audio file. Meanwhile, the second black box, which is a flight data recorder, will be sent to the US for analysis. 

The recorder had some external damage, including a missing connector that links its data storage unit to the power supply, Yonhap News Agency reported. 

(With inputs from agencies)