BANGKOK (Reuters) – A family in northeastern Thailand are mourning the loss of Jongluk Duangmanee, one of two Thai nationals of the Jeju Air crash, and wish to bring her body home for a religious ceremony.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew were killed when the Boeing 737-800 crash-landed and skidded off the end of the runway at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday.
Boonchuay Duangmanee, 77, said he must come to terms with his 45-year-old daughter’s sudden death.
“I can only accept it, make peace with it,” he told state broadcaster Thai PBS. “No matter what I do, my daughter won’t come back.”
He had felt a “sense of unease” when neighbours told him of the Jeju Air crash, he added, as his daughter often travelled with the airline.
Jongluk, the third youngest in the family, had been working in South Korea for seven years and would visit her home in Udon Thani, about 500 km (310 miles) north of the Thai capital, every year.
Boonchuay said he wants to bring his daughter’s body home for a proper religious ceremony as other relatives gathered at the family’s home.
Bird strikes and poor weather are among possible reasons South Korean investigators are examining for the crash.
The accident was the worst for any South Korean airline since a 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed more than 200.
(Reporting Napat Wesshasartar; Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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