Efforts to identify all 179 victims of the air tragedy continue, as the bereaved families and the people across the country continue to mourn.
Our correspondent Park Kun-woo is standing by down in Muan-gun County.
Kun-woo, you’re at one of the main joint memorial altars set up down there, right?
Good morning Dami.
As you mentioned, I’m at one of the main joint memorial altars set up around 5 kilometers from the airport at the Muan Sports Complex in Muan-gun County, in South Korea’s southwest.
Mourners across all age groups have been arriving at the site since early this morning to mourn the 179 lives lost in South Korea’s deadliest plane accident after thousands of mourners visited the site the day before.
Here’s what one mourner had to say.
“I couldn’t sleep at all yesterday because I was so sad. That’s why I came here very early this morning. I canceled all my year-end and New Year’s gatherings to welcome the New Year calmly.”
A new joint memorial altar was also set up on the first floor of Muan International Airport this morning from 9 AM, following requests from the bereaved families.
There are now at least 88 memorial altars established across the country including in Gwangju City where the majority of the passengers who lost their lives in the airplane crash were from.
How is the process for identifying victims of the crash coming along?
The identification of at least 174 out of the total 179 victims has been confirmed while efforts to recover the personal belongings of the victims are ongoing.
DNA analysis is underway to help identify the bodies of the remaining victims.
Authorities had hoped the identification process would be completed by this morning, but the Transport Ministry said it would take longer.
The bodies of 90 victims are planned to be returned to families so that funerals can begin.
Four bodies have already been returned to their families in Seoul and Gwangju.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok said maximum support will be provided for funerals in accordance with the wishes of the bereaved families.
He also said a special inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the same model as the one that crashed, in service in South Korea will be conducted.
Kun-woo, the entire nation is grieving, in fact, the national period of mourning lasts until this Saturday.
What’s going to happen to all the year-end and New Year’s events?
Because of the national mourning period which lasts until January 4th, such events have been either cancelled or scaled down.
For example, the annual Bosingak New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony taking place tonight will be at a smaller scale with all related performances canceled.
Only the bell-ringing program will remain.
Music concerts and year-end awards ceremonies have been delayed or canceled as well.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=279473
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