Muan, South Korea – Muan International Airport looks like any other airport during the holidays. Its parking lot is filled with hundreds of cars while the departure and arrival gates bustle with activity.

However, it is unlike any other airport, nor does it have the holiday spirit. It has been two days since the airport temporarily suspended all operations after a deadly passenger plane crashed on Sunday, leaving only two survivors out of a total of 181 passengers and crew. Jeju Air Flight 2216 A plane from Thailand to South Korea crashed into a concrete barrier and was immediately enveloped in a fireball after an emergency landing on the runway at Muan Airport.

Inside the airport, in the country’s South Jeolla Province, there is a sea of ​​people dressed in black, resembling a South Korean funeral. Families and friends gather around each other, amid tears and howls of grief.

They are waiting to receive the remains of their loved ones, to be reunited with them one last time.

Ki Hoi Man, 37, traveled more than five hours from the northern city of Bago after hearing that his uncle was one of the victims of the plane crash. He remembers his late uncle as a man of faith and friend.

“I was always kicking a soccer ball when I was young, and my uncle would often visit our house to see us. He was the only adult who would come to play with the kids during our family gatherings,” Kei recalls. “He was always smart and an exemplary adult. He is someone I aspire to become one day.”

While family members of the victims have remained at the airport in tents and makeshift benches since Sunday, large numbers of relatives and close friends from across the country began gathering at the airport the next day to grieve alongside them.

Of the 179 dead, five victims have not yet been identified.

Many of the passengers were vacationing in Thailand, including 41 members of a package tour to Bangkok sold by a local travel agency. The oldest person was 78 years old while the youngest was three years old.

“Just one day before my sister left on her trip, she visited our mother’s house in Gwangju to give her Christmas gifts,” recalls a middle-aged man getting fresh air outside the airport, who lost his sister and brother-in-law in the accident. “After I made her try on new clothes, I told our mother that she would be back soon.”

He remembers how his younger sister was the one who brought the family together after their father died last year.

“It was she who suggested our trip to Yeosu last summer and to Daecheon in the fall. She took care of our sick father during his last days. “We took courage from her,” he says, before walking away overcome with emotion.

A seven-day nationwide period of mourning has been declared with memorial sites set up in cities across the country. Less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Muan Airport, a memorial altar was set up in the city’s sports complex to honor the victims.

Jeon Myung-hwan came from Seoul to say goodbye to his best friend.

“My friend and his wife were on a retirement trip, and we spoke on the phone last week. “We talked about going on a trip of our own soon,” Jeon tells Al Jazeera, his voice trembling.

Having met in middle school in their hometown of Guangyang just a few hours east of Mu’an, the two friends would get together at least once a year with their other friends.

“We even got married around the same time, so our families would often get together and go on trips together. He was kind and quiet, but always looked out for others like a big brother.

Because his friend’s wife has not yet been identified through search efforts at the airport, her name is not on the funeral altar with those of the other victims.

“It’s sad to see my friend not next to his wife at the altar,” Jeon says. “I hope he is at peace in heaven next to his wife.”

On Tuesday, after two full days of recovery efforts, families were able to begin funerals as the first group of bodies returned. However, families at the airport expressed frustration at the slow response by the authorities and raised concerns about gaps in their leadership.

Park Han-shin, a representative of the families, even told reporters gathered at Muan Airport that he “will not fully trust the authorities anymore” after he claimed they were too busy blaming each other.

South Korea currently leads The third president in just one month. President Yoon Suk-yeol was stripped of his presidential duties after martial law was declared at the beginning of the month. Prime Minister Han Duk-soo, who was next in line, was voted out of his presidential post after just two weeks, leaving Finance Minister Choe Sang-mok to juggle national disasters, a polarized political arena, and historic economic fallout like the current crisis. Acting President.

Choi’s order to conduct an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire flight operations includes a special inspection of all 101 Boeing 737-800 planes – the model involved in Sunday’s crash – operated by the South Korean airlines, with a focus on the maintenance record of key components.

While A Bird strike It was mentioned early on as a major factor in the accident, and experts have questioned the extent to which this theory was the sole cause of the accident. Authorities collected the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder for further analysis.

During the investigations, South Korean officials will need to consider questions such as the plane’s speed during landing, its flaps not open, the function of the thrust reversers and the malfunctioning landing gear. Local residents in Muan reported that they heard explosions from the plane before it made an emergency landing.

As a result, much public attention has been focused on Jeju Airlines.

Low-cost airline bosses bowed deeply and issued a public apology at a news conference hours after the crash on Sunday. Named after Jeju Island, the airline is South Korea’s first and largest low-cost airline. Among the various concerns is the excessive use of the aircraft during the peak season at the end of the year for holiday trips. The Jeju plane that crashed on Sunday was found to have made 13 flights in the 48 hours before the accident, according to Yonhap News Agency, citing industry sources.

Local media also highlighted online posts in the past that were supposedly written by former and current Jeju Air employees. Published on anonymous online site Blind, a post from last year claims the company’s efforts to “save maintenance costs” caused “four in-flight engine failures.” Another post, supposedly a mechanic at the company, confirmed that “the mechanics’ colleagues worked all night in addition to 13 to 14 hours of work, and had no time to rest except lunch time.”

About 68,000 Jeju Airlines reservations were canceled within 24 hours after the plane crash on Sunday.

Questions were also circulated about Concrete dam At the end of the Muan Airport runway where the plane eventually crashed. Muan Airport authorities said the distance between the GPS device, a tool for guiding incoming aircraft, and the embankment and the end of the runway is at least 250 meters (820 feet), in line with safety regulations.

Returning to the memorial altar in Muan, Song In-young, 61, says he comes from the neighboring city of Naju to pay his respects to the victims.

“We don’t have any blood relations [among the victims]But I consider everyone on that flight like my family. “For people like me who went through times of brutal political repression in the 1980s, we feel a deep connection to the cities in this part of the region,” he says, referring to the Gwangju massacre, which is known to have claimed hundreds of lives. By the army that was in power at the time.

“I believe in an afterlife, so I wish peace to all the victims on their next journeys,” Song says. “Most importantly, I hope that all remaining family members can find peace as soon as possible.”