He Didnt Know His Father Was on Doomed South Korean Flight Until It Crashed

Days before setting off on a vacation from which he would never return, Oh Jaejin’s father had been overjoyed at the prospect of becoming a grandfather after Mr.Oh told him that his wife was pregnant.“He said he was about to cry,” said Mr.

Oh, 37, tears welling as he recalled his father’s response to the news earlier this month.On Sunday, Mr.

Oh’s father was killed along with 178 other people when the plane they were on, Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, left Bangkok and crash-landed at an airport in southwestern South Korea.The accident, the world’s deadliest plane crash in recent years, turned the airport in Muan County into a place of colossal grief and shock for the hundreds of victims’ relatives who had rushed there.On Tuesday, that sadness swelled as officials slowly led families to a temporary morgue set up at the airport hangar, outside the terminal, to identify bodies that had been recovered from the charred and mangled wreckage.The work of piecing together hundreds of body parts has been painstaking, but the authorities said that by Tuesday morning 170 bodies had been identified, and four were turned over to their families.

The crash was so devastating that only two people onboard survived — crew members who have since been hospitalized in Seoul.At the Muan airport, a memorial altar was being set up on the first floor on Tuesday for relatives and visitors to lay flowers.The victims included toddlers and grandparents, entire families, groups of friends and couples.

To those who waited anxiously at the airport this week, they were their sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers and children....