SOUTH Korean officials are battling to identify the badly damaged bodies of 179 plane crash victims.
Grieving families remain camped outside Muan International Airport following the disaster on Sunday as they grow desperate to see the bodies of their loved ones.
In heartbreaking scenes, one middle-aged man asked police: “Can you promise that they will be put back together?”.
Authorities are understood to have recovered more than 600 body parts as they deal with the aftermath of the horror crash.
The passenger plane erupted into a fireball after smashing into a wall following a crash landing.
Serious questions are now being asked over if the incident could have been avoided.
All but two of the 181 people on board were killed in the tragedy that has left both South Korea and the world reeling.
Devastated families have gathered at the airport and are demanding to see their relative’s bodies.
Anger has been directed at police, who say they are taking their time to carefully identify victims.
Police superintendent general Na Won reassured families they were making their best efforts to collect and match as many bodies as possible, reports BBC.
Lee Jin-cheol, the Administrator of the Busan Regional Aviation Administration, said until now fingerprints had been used to ID bodies.
He added: “But we have nearly reached the limit, and there are cases of errors occurring.
“From now on, we will likely have to rely on DNA testing.”
Among those killed were three generations of the same family.
A man in his 60s told Korean Yonhap news agency that his sister-in-law, daughter, her husband and their young children had died.
All those on board the flight are thought to have been Korean except for two Thai nationals -one of whom was a 22-year-old woman called Sirithon Chaue.
Tragically, her mother was waiting for her at the airport when the plane crashed landed.
Chaue’s uncle told how she was going to visit her mum, who lives in South Korea, and hoped to find a job there.
He added: “She always dreamed of working there as an air hostess.
“Her mother was waiting at the airport and at first she thought the plane malfunction was minor. But then she saw the videos of what happened on social media. She was in shock and panic.”
Five of those killed were children under the age of ten.
Among them was a three-year-old boy, who is understood to have been killed alongside his parents as they returned from their first family holiday.
Kang Ko, 43, and his wife Jin Lee Seon, 37, had shared pictures on social media from their trip – including one of the child looking out the plane window.
A heartbreaking caption read: “My son is going abroad for the first time on a night flight, and his first passport has no stamp.”
Cries rang out through the airport as officials confirmed the names of some of those killed.
At least 141 victims of the Jeju Air plane crash have been identified so far, South Korea’s land ministry said today.
An official added: “Once we are ready to transfer the bodies following autopsies by investigation agencies, we will contact the families.”
Investigators are desperately trying to piece together what caused the harrowing crash – one of the worst aviation disasters in South Korea’s history.
Flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the wreckage – but authorities have warned it might take months to complete a probe into the crash.
Police are also investigating an email claiming that the Jeju Air passenger plane accident was their doing.
The passenger plane, which had flown in from Bangkok, is thought to have hit a bird on its approach to Muan International Airport – crippling the plane’s landing gear.
Video shows it approaching the airport when its right engine was struck by what appeared to be a bird.
The collision may have forced the pilot – who is reported to have made a mayday call shortly after the strike – to shut down the damaged engine as he wrestled to control it in the sky.
Several attempts to land were aborted by the pilot before a final decision was made to attempt it.
The aircraft quickly slammed into the tarmac as the pilot tried to land safely.
But the pilot’s heroic landing was all in vain as it continued to speed off the end of the runway before smashing into a concrete wall.
The plane instantly exploded after hitting the structure at the end of the 2,800-metre runway, which was only built last year.
The impact is believed to have set off the fireball by rupturing fuel tanks.
Rescue teams raced to the scene and, incredibly, pulled two survivors – both crew members – from the rear of the blazing wreck.
Tragically everyone else on board – 175 passengers and four crew members – died in the flames.
Upsetting final texts from a passenger on the doomed plane were shared with a TV station.
With a Hello Kitty profile picture, the text message exchange happened just two minutes before the fireball crash.
“A bird got stuck in the wing, so we can’t land,” wrote the passenger to their waiting relative.
They were then asked how long that had been the case.
The passenger then replies with a chilling final message, saying: “Just now, should I say my last words?”
