Jeju Air said it conducted a pre-flight inspection hours before a passenger plane crashed in South Korea, killing 179 people, and found no problems.

“No abnormalities were found in the landing gear,” Kim Yi-bae, the airline’s chief executive, told a news conference in Seoul. Investigations are continuing into why the wheels did not come down during the emergency landing.

The plane, which took off from Bangkok on Sunday, crashed at Muan International Airport and burst into flames, killing everyone on board except the two crew members. After sliding on the wall.

Investigators are still working to identify the victims and determine the cause of South Korea’s worst-ever air crash.

Many questions remain unanswered, and investigators are looking into the role bird strikes or weather conditions may have played.

They are also concerned about why the Boeing 737-800 did not extend its landing gear when it hit the runway shortly after 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT) on Sunday.

Hundreds of grieving relatives camped out at Muan Airport, angry that they had yet to see the bodies of their loved ones.

So far, only a few of the victims’ bodies have been released to their families. Four people were transported to a funeral home on Tuesday, but most other families are still waiting for their loved ones to be identified.

Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae said Tuesday in response to a question about the company’s safety procedures that the plane would not have been cleared to take off if the maintenance team had not signed a safety agreement.

Its pilots are trained to regulatory standards and the company has two full flight simulators, he said.

“We have 12.9 maintenance workers per aircraft, which is an increase from 12 in 2019,” he said.

“We have a strict maintenance checklist and it’s impossible to miss anything. If something is missed, it’s a serious problem.

“As for whether the landing gear is working properly, this is directly related to the accident investigation and we cannot know yet.”

Mr King said the airline would reduce air traffic by 10-15% this winter to be able to carry out more maintenance work on its aircraft, but said this was not an admission that the airline was operating too many aircraft.

He added that they would step up monitoring of weather before and after flights.

Mr Kim also admitted that Jeju Air had paid the most fines and faced the most administrative penalties among Korean airlines over the past five years, but said the airline was constantly improving its safety record.

He said he was committed to strengthening the company’s security and maintenance procedures, adding: “Our goal is to repair your trust in us by strengthening our security measures.”

Mr King said the airline was preparing emergency compensation for the families of the victims and paying for funeral expenses.

He said the money would be released soon, pending the completion of the insurance process. Company employees are on site to provide psychological counseling to the family, he added.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the 179 passengers on flight 7C2216 ranged in age from 3 to 78 years old, but most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Authorities said two Thais were among the dead, while the others were believed to be Koreans.

Many relatives of the victims were frustrated that the process of identifying the victims’ bodies took so long, but officials said it was challenging because those on board were severely burned in the fire that followed the crash.

One man interviewed by the BBC at the airport said his nephew and his two sons were traveling to Thailand to celebrate the end of the college entrance examination. All three died in flight.

“I can’t believe the whole family just disappeared,” 78-year-old Maeng Gi-su told the BBC. “My heart hurts so much.”

The runway at Muan International Airport will be closed for another week while forensic teams collect more remains and debris.

Investigators on Tuesday began examining the plane’s two black boxes – the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

They said the second device was missing a key connector, which would make extracting data more difficult. That could prolong the search for answers as to why the plane was forced to land without landing gear.

Officials also said they were reviewing regulations regarding the concrete barrier that the plane struck as it skidded off the end of the runway.