The death toll from South Korea’s deadliest plane crash in decades reached 179 people on Monday, a day after the disaster had already plunged the country into intense political turmoil.

The United States is now sending investigators to find out what caused the Jeju Air plane to crash land at Muan airport and hit a concrete barrier on Sunday.

Meanwhile, South Korean officials are combing through more than 600 body parts and the stench of blood lingers in the air at the crash site, the Daily Mail reported.

So far 141 bodies have been identified. The youngest passenger was three years old and the oldest was 78, the BBC reported.

The plane had 181 people on board and only two sole survivors – 32-year-old Lee and 25-year-old Kwon, both flight attendants – were pulled alive from the tail of the burning plane.

Doctors at Mokpo Korean Hospital reportedly described how Lee, who suffered a broken left shoulder and head injuries but remained conscious, repeatedly asked them, “What happened?” and “Why am I here?”

“It appears that she was in a state of panic, possibly worried about the safety of the plane and passengers,” a hospital official told The Korean Times.

Aviation expert doubts theory of bird strike in fatal plane crash in South Korea: “Makes no sense”

According to the report, Kwon, who is being treated at Mokpo Central Hospital, suffered a laceration to his head, a broken ankle and abdominal pain. She also had no immediate memory of the accident.

“Although her life is not in danger, the trauma and injuries are significant,” another hospital said, according to the Korean Times.

South Korea’s transportation ministry said Monday that it plans safety inspections of all 101 Boeing 737-800 planes owned by the country’s airlines, as well as a broader review of safety standards at Jeju Air, which operates 39 of those planes. Senior ministry official Joo Jong-wan said representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing were expected to arrive in South Korea on Monday to take part in the investigation.

“The NTSB is leading a team of U.S. investigators (NTSB, Boeing and FAA) to assist the Republic of Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) in the investigation of the December 29 Jeju aviation accident at Muan International Airport in Muan support. Republic of Korea,” the NTSB newsroom account wrote on X.

Ministry officials also said they would examine whether Muan airport’s localizer – a concrete fence with a series of antennas designed to safely guide planes during landings – should have been made of lighter materials that would break more easily on impact.

Joo said the ministry found that similar concrete structures also existed at other domestic airports, including on Jeju island and the southern cities of Yeosu and Pohang, as well as at airports in the United States, Spain and South Africa.

Sunday’s crash, the country’s worst air disaster in decades, sparked a wave of national sympathy. Many people are worried about how effectively the South Korean government will deal with the disaster, given the recent back-to-back impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s two most senior officials, and the political turmoil caused by Yoon is struggling with a leadership vacuum. Martial law was briefly imposed earlier this month.

New acting President Choi Sang-mok chaired a task force meeting on the crash on Monday and ordered authorities to conduct an emergency review of the country’s aircraft operating systems.

“The core of a responsible response would be to overhaul aviation safety systems overall to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents and build a safer Republic of South Korea,” Choi, who is also deputy prime minister and finance minister, told the Associated Press.

A SOUTH KOREAN PLANE’S FINAL MOMENTS CAPTURED ON VIDEO BEFORE IT SLASHES A CONCRETE BARRIER AND TRIGGERS AN EXPLOSION

The Boeing 737-800 of the South Korean low-cost airline Jeju Air aborted its first landing attempt for unclear reasons. Then, on its second landing attempt, it received a bird strike warning from the ground control center before its pilot issued a distress signal. The plane landed without the front landing gear extended, overshot the runway, hit a concrete fence and exploded in a fireball.

The Transportation Department said authorities had identified 146 bodies and were collecting DNA and fingerprint samples from the other 33, according to the AP.

Park Han Shin, a representative of the bereaved families, said they were told the bodies were so badly damaged that officials needed time before they could return them to their families.

“I demand that the government mobilize more personnel to bring back our brothers and family members as safely and quickly as possible,” he said, choking back tears.

Earlier on Monday, another Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by Jeju Air was returning to Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport shortly after takeoff when the pilot noticed a problem with the landing gear. Song Kyung-hoon, a Jeju Air executive, said the problem was resolved through communication with a land-based equipment center, but the pilot decided to return to Gimpo as a precaution.

Joo said officials were investigating whether there may have been communication problems between air traffic controllers and the pilot.

“Our current understanding is that at some point during the go-around, communications became somewhat ineffective or lost prior to landing and impact,” he said.

Ministry officials said Monday that the plane’s flight data and cockpit audio recorders were taken to a research center at Gimpo Airport before being analyzed. Ministry officials previously said it would take months to complete the investigation into the crash.

The Muan crash is South Korea’s worst aviation disaster since 1997, when a Korean Airlines plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.

The crash left many South Koreans shocked and embarrassed, and the government announced seven days of national mourning until January 4. Some questioned whether the crash was linked to safety or regulatory issues, such as a 2022 Halloween massacre in Seoul that killed 160 people and the 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people came.

Video of the crash showed that the pilots did not operate flaps or slats to slow the aircraft, indicating a possible hydraulic failure, and that they did not manually lower the landing gear, indicating they did not have time, John Cox, a retired airline pilot and CEO of Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida, said the AP.

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Still, the plane was under control and flying straight, and damage and injuries likely would have been minimized had the barrier not been so close to the runway, Cox said. Other observers said the videos showed the plane probably had engine trouble, but the landing gear malfunction was likely a direct cause of the crash. They told the AP that there was likely no connection between the landing gear problem and the suspected engine problem.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.