South Korea plans to dispatch a team of officials and has offered military support to Indonesia as a search and rescue operation unfolds after an AirAsia jet disappeared en route to Singapore on Sunday.
At least three Koreans were confirmed to be aboard Flight QZ8501 -- a couple in their 30s with an infant girl. They were among the 162 passengers and crew members on the aircraft that lost contact with Indonesia’s air traffic control while flying over the Java Sea from Surabaya about an hour before it was scheduled to land at 9:30 a.m., Seoul time.
The Foreign Ministry convened an emergency meeting in the afternoon to formulate its response, while contacting the families of the missing. Lee Jeong-gwan, ambassador for overseas Koreans and consular affairs, led the meeting with officials from other agencies such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Lee In-ho, consul-general at the embassy in Jakarta, and two working-level diplomats there were expected to arrive at the Juanda airport later that day, with one or two more officials to be dispatched from a different mission nearby.
With the search mission under way by countries also including Singapore and Australia, the government is seeking to dispatch necessary military assets, according to Lee.
“We will fully support their rescue efforts such as by sending a patrol plane after consulting with the Indonesian government,” Lee told reporters after the session. “We’re also actively considering sending our investigators there if needed.”
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Relatives of the passengers of AirAsia flight QZ8501 comfort each other at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia, Sunday. (AP-Yonhap) |
The Korean passengers had been staying in Indonesia for about two months for an unspecified purpose and were forecast to live there “for a while,” another Seoul official said, citing information from their relatives yet declining to elaborate due to privacy concerns. He said the aim of their latest trip was unclear, despite news reports that the husband was a Christian missionary and had intended to renew his visa in Singapore.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi made a phone call to his Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se to confirm the identity of the three people and promise the utmost efforts to save them. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also delivered consolation and the news of her country’s participation in the rescue work by phone, Lee noted.
“As seen in the case of the Malaysian airline that went missing in March, the rescue mission will likely be an extremely difficult task. It will never be easy to produce short-term results but we will do our best,” the ambassador added.
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
