South Korean officials on Monday began the slow, painstaking process of piecing together the many body parts found in the wreckage after the country’s worst plane crash in decades, as hundreds of relatives, waiting to receive the victims’ bodies, grew more anguished by the hour.
The families had rushed to the airport in the southwestern county of Muan where Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 had crashed on Sunday, killing 179 people. As they grappled with an incomprehensible tragedy, it became clear on Monday that they would have to wait not hours but days for their loved ones’ remains to be returned to them.
The authorities continued trying to understand why the flight, which took off from Bangkok and was headed to Muan, crash-landed, speeding along the runway on its belly before crashing into a concrete structure and bursting into flames. The crash tore the plane into so many pieces that only its tail was immediately identifiable, and the only two survivors were crew members who had been rescued from the tail.
The scale of the destruction meant that even as most of the bodies were expected to be identified by Tuesday, when the remains would actually be returned to families was another question. Officials said it could take up to 10 days for all of the bodies to be ready for transport because, with the exception of five that were more intact, most were badly charred and in pieces.
Investigators have recovered more than 600 body parts from the crash site so far, said Na Won-o, the superintendent general of the police in Jeonnam Province, where the airport is, on Monday, adding that officials were continuing to search for remains.
The sheer number of parts to take DNA samples from and piece together complicated the police post-mortems that had to be done before the bodies could be handed over, Mr. Na said.
“There are many bodies with the arms and legs broken off,” Mr. Na told families at a makeshift forum set up at one part of the departures hall of Muan International Airport. “We can identify the bodies but cannot release them yet.”
For many families, this wait has added to an immeasurable grief and disbelief. The airport where they have been camping out has echoed with the sounds of weeping. Relatives shouted at — or pleaded with — officials to work more quickly so that they could receive their loved ones’ remains.
The police planned to release bodies one at a time, but estimated that some relatives would not be able to start holding funerals until as late as next Wednesday, Mr. Na said. One man shouted that he had been told he could leave the airport Sunday night.
“You said we’d be able to go at 9 o’clock!” he said. “How many hours has it been now!”
Already, families scattered throughout the cold floor of the temporarily closed airport, laying down blankets in preparation for a long stay. Civic groups, churches and the local government provided them with tents for resting, water, toiletries, tea and snacks like tangerines, Choco Pies and instant noodle cups.
Some relatives used the makeshift forum to voice their frustration and call for accountability. In the evening, as news trickled out among relatives that the bodies were spread out on the ground and not placed in freezers as the authorities had promised to do by early afternoon, dozens of relatives surrounded officials from the transport ministry at the airport. They shouted at them, accusing them of neglect and of evading their responsibilities.
“The victims’ dignity is being seriously damaged,” said a representative of the relatives, Park Han-shin, whose brother Hyung-gon was killed in the disaster. “I am strongly criticizing the authorities.”
An official said in response that the freezers had arrived but, because of issues with setting them up, the bodies had not yet been placed inside, adding they were working as quickly as they could overnight to do so. The relatives had requested the freezers out of concern that the bodies would rot in Muan, where it has been unseasonably warm, with the daytime temperature rising to 52 degrees on Monday.
Others demanded answers from the airline. A man from Seoul who had lost his parents in the crash asked about Jeju Air’s preparedness for bird strikes, saying that it was hard to understand how something so common could have potentially led to so many deaths. (Investigators are looking at multiple factors, and causes can take years to uncover.)
Jung Suk Lee, a senior executive of Jeju Air, who was at the airport, apologized to the relatives for their losses, saying that the company had agreed to pay all direct and indirect expenses related to their funerals, including accommodation and transport.
“As a member of the executive team, as a father, and as a child, I am deeply saddened by and remorseful over your loss,” he said. He added that airline would separately handle matters of civil or criminal liability and damages related to the disaster. The government has also declared seven days of mourning, until Saturday. Many cities across the country planned to set up memorial altars.
Mr. Park, the relatives’ representative, said that they wanted the authorities to deploy more people to work in the teams managing the bodies.
“They say that the bodies are so badly mutilated that it’s taking a lot of time to recover them,” he said in tears, standing before reporters and relatives. “I’m asking the government to hire more people so we can send off my brother, our family members, quickly.”
Mr. Park added that he had asked officials to reinforce the patrols to fend off wildlife at the crash site, and to send more refrigerated containers for temporary body storage as temperatures rose above freezing.
He also said that he would work with the authorities to ensure that families are compensated for the loss of their relatives once the cause of the crash, and who should be held responsible, becomes clear.
“Some people’s parents have gone to heaven,” he said. “How can the children live on their own?”
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