For South Korean Families, a Grim Wait for Bodies After Plane Crash

Officials said it could take up to 10 days to prepare the dead for transport, with the uncertainty adding to the shock and grief of relatives packed into an airport hall.

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.