The Jeju Air plane crash at Muan International Airport that killed 179 people in December has been linked to pilot error, according to an interim report on the air disaster released over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board presented its latest report to the victims’ families, which concluded the pilot mistakenly turned off the left engine, not the engine on the right side of the plane, which was severely damaged by a bird strike minutes before the plane made an emergency landing.

The investigation board said it came to this conclusion after sending the plane’s two engines to Paris in May for detailed analysis by the manufacturer.

Investigators said no defects were found in the engines.

According to the findings, instead of shutting down the damaged right engine, the pilot switched off the working left engine, which resulted in a complete loss of engine power and main power to the aircraft, interfering with the operation of the flight data recorders, control room voice recorders and landing gear.
 
In response to the report, the bereaved families group accused the board of rushing to conclusions about the disaster when the investigation is still ongoing, and criticized the authorities for their lack of transparency and inadequate explanations regarding key issues such as the bird strike and verification of data from the plane’s black boxes.

The Jeju Air pilots union also issued a strong statement against the investigation board and its report, saying it staunchly opposes what it called malicious attempts to focus blame on the pilot.