The heartwrenching tragedy of Jeju Air flight 7C 2216, in which 179 died, continues to unfold. They were all travelers who were mostly embarking on new year-end trip vacations for several important family mileposts. Also among the killed was a Gwangju journalist, aged 30 years, as a prize reporter for her exceptional work.
She was traelling with her husband aged 33 years. The couple was returning from Bangkok by this flight of Jeju 7C-2216 from Bangkok on which they had holidayed. The journalist had taken a photograph of the hotel pool before the flight to the, and posted on Instagram with the caption, “The weather here is so great, it’s like early summer.”
Other casualties were the 43-year-old, who was on a first overseas adventure with his wife and their three-year-old son. She posted on her social media, “My son’s going abroad for the first time and traveling on a night-time flight. The schedule that filled up three months was tiresome, but happy to see he enjoyed himself because it was an eventful three months.”
Even after the sudden death, many tributes flooded in through various colleagues who saw him while at work like one from professional baseball team, Kia Tigers. Retired pitcher Kim Byung-hyun mourned through posting, “I was hitting the ‘like’ button on photos of my friend, his wife, and 3-year-old son having a great time in Thailand.. It pains me so much. I feel sympathy from the bottom of my heart to all the families who have lost their family members”.
A newlywed couple returning from honeymoon, a woman who was just about to be married and was 32 years old, and a father who had taken his two sons on a trip as a treat since the elder son had been accepted into university-all lost their lives in the crash. Among them was a 50-year-old widow who had beaten cancer after fighting it for one year. The oldest passenger on board was a 79-year-old man returning from a family trip with his wife, two daughters, a son-in-law, granddaughter, and three grandsons.
