A Jeju Air plane was forced to return to Seoul on Monday due to landing gear malfunction.

This comes a day after a Jeju Air passenger plane with 180 persons aboard burst into flames on the ground early Sunday morning in South Korea.

The plane was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet that was returning from Bangkok in Thailand.

The plane had skid off the runway before ramming into a concrete fence when its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy.

At least 179 passengers have so far been confirmed dead from the crash.

On Monday morning, a Jeju Air Flight 7C101 departed Gimpo Airport, Seoul, for Jeju International Airport, but experienced landing gear difficulties.

The pilots immediately informed the 161 passengers on board of the snafu.

The plane circled and eventually returned to Gimpo Airport 40 minutes after take-off.

The aircraft used for the flight is reportedly a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 — the same type of aircraft involved in Sunday’s accident.

A Jeju Air official said the retreat was a precautionary measure.

He added that “we will provide a full refund to passengers who voluntarily got off the plane, and we will pay compensation for the delay to passengers who boarded the plane”.

About 21 passengers reportedly gave up boarding over safety concerns.

The airline transferred the remaining passengers to a replacement flight of the same model and departed for Jeju at 8:30am.

South Korea ordered Monday a “comprehensive inspection” of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s carriers, after a Jeju Air plane crash-landed and burst into flames, killing 179 people on board.

US air safety officials and staff from the beleaguered aircraft maker Boeing were arriving to join investigators probing the worst air disaster on South Korean soil, which officials initially blamed on a collision with birds.

The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea when it made a mayday call and belly-landing before crashing into a barrier and bursting into flames.

Everyone on board Jeju Air Flight 2216 was killed, save two flight attendants pulled from the wreckage.

South Korea began seven days of mourning, with flags flying at half-mast and the acting president flying to the crash site in southwestern Muan for a memorial.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok, who has only been in office since Friday, said the government was making “every effort” to identify victims and support bereaved families.

Choi, an unelected bureaucrat who became acting president after his two predecessors were impeached, said a “thorough investigation into the cause of the accident” would be conducted.

He also said South Korea would conduct “an urgent safety inspection of the overall aircraft operation system” to prevent future aviation disasters.

South Korea has a solid air safety record and both black boxes from Flight 2216 — the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder — have been found.

Officials have identified 146 victims so far using DNA analysis or fingerprint collection, said Joo.

Victims’ families camped out at the airport overnight in special tents set up in the airport lounge after a long, painful day waiting for news of their loved ones.

“I had a son on board that plane,” said an elderly man waiting in the airport lounge, who asked not to be named, saying that his son’s body had not yet been identified.

– Memorial –

At the crash site early Monday, a middle-aged man and woman kept their gaze fixed through the fence, where remnants of the plane — seats, gates, and twisted metal parts — were still scattered across the field near the charred tail.

The smell of blood was still in the air.

Soldiers carefully combed through a field of reeds next to the runway, engaged in what appeared to be a search for body parts.

The passengers, aged from three to 78, were all Korean apart from two Thais, authorities said.

Low-cost carrier Jeju Air said it “sincerely” apologised, with top officials shown bowing deeply at a news conference in Seoul.

The airline said another Jeju Air flight using the same model aircraft experienced a malfunction linked to the landing gear and was forced to return to Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport shortly after takeoff Monday.

– Criticism –

A growing chorus of criticism from experts analysing dramatic video footage of Flight 2216’s landing has focused on whether airport construction could have played a part.

Kim Kwang-il, professor of Aeronautical Science at Silla University and a former pilot, said he was “quite upset” when he reviewed a video showing the plane making a skilled emergency landing but then hitting a wall.

“There shouldn’t have been a solid structure in that area at all,” he told AFP.

“Normally, at the end of a runway, there’s no such solid obstruction — it’s against international aviation safety standards,” he said.

“The structure in question caused the aircraft to crash and catch fire.”

“Outside the airport, there are usually just fences which are soft and wouldn’t cause significant damage. The plane could have skidded further and stopped naturally. The unnecessary structure is highly regrettable.”

The Lagos state government has filed a notice of appeal at the supreme court seeking to overturn the recent acquittal of Femi Olaleye, a medical doctor previously convicted of rape.

Olaleye, managing director of the Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2023 by the Lagos Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court for defiling a child and sexually assaulting the victim.

However, in November, a three-member panel at the Lagos court of appeal overturned the conviction, discharging and acquitting the doctor.

The appellate court ruled that the original judgment was flawed, describing the testimonies of Oluremi Olaleye, the defendant’s wife, and the alleged survivor as “tainted” and “unreliable”.

It further suggested that Oluremi was “motivated by greed and the desire to take over the appellant’s assets upon his incarceration”.

CASE BACKGROUND

Olaleye was initially arraigned in November 2022 on charges of defilement of a child and sexual assault by penetration.

He was accused of sexually abusing his wife’s niece over a period of 20 months.

In October 2023, Rahman Oshodi, a judge at the special offences court convicted Olaleye and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Following his conviction, Olaleye filed 35 grounds of appeal, which led to the appellate court’s decision to quash the conviction and acquit him.

In response to the ruling, civil rights groups petitioned Lawal Pedro, the Lagos state attorney general, to appeal the decision at the supreme court.

THE NOTICE OF APPEAL

The notice, filed by Babajide Martins, director of public prosecutions (DPP); Adebayo Haroun, a director in the ministry of justice; and Babajide Boye, a deputy director; along with three other counsels, challenged the entire decision of the court of appeal.

The notice includes three main grounds of appeal.

Ground one: corroboration of testimony.

The Lagos government argued that the court of appeal erred in law when it disregarded Section 209(2) of the Evidence Act, 2011, and the Apex Court’s decision in Dagaya v. State.

The appeal contended that the appellate court wrongly required corroboration for the sworn evidence of the victim, despite her being over 14 years old.

The Lagos government asserted that the appellate court’s decision to demand corroboration was in direct contradiction to the relevant legal provisions, which do not require corroboration for sworn evidence from a victim above the age of 14.

Ground two: confessional statements.

The second ground of appeal contested the court of appeal’s decision that the confessional statements of the defendant—Exhibits H, HI, and H2 — were wrongly admitted by the trial court.

The Lagos government argued that the trial court correctly admitted these confessional statements, as the defendant did not raise objections to their admissibility at the time they were tendered, as stipulated under Sections 28 and 29 of the Evidence Act, 2011.

The appeal asserted that a trial within a trial is not necessary when the objection to the admissibility of a confessional statement has been withdrawn, as was the case.

Furthermore, the Lagos government claimed that the defendant was cross-examined on his earlier statements, which is permitted under Section 232 of the Evidence Act, 2011.

Ground three: absence of key witnesses.

The third ground of appeal challenged the court of appeal’s ruling that the prosecution’s case was weakened by the failure to call two key witnesses — DPO Patricia Amadi and Aunty Tessy.

The Lagos government maintained that the law does not require the prosecution to call all witnesses listed in the case.

The government said the absence of these witnesses did not harm the prosecution’s case, as other testimonies, particularly from the victim and other witnesses, established the necessary elements of the offence.

Additionally, the state noted that the absence of DPO Amadi, who was not the investigating police officer in the case, did not invalidate the prosecution’s case, as evidence from the actual investigating officer, PW6, was sufficient.

The Lagos state government is therefore seeking an order from the supreme court to allow the appeal court set aside its judgment delivered on November 29, 2024, and affirm the conviction and sentence of Olaleye as delivered by the trial court.