Lee Geun-young regularly watches planes come in from his restaurant near Muan Airport in South Korea.
But as Jeju Air flight 7C2216 approached the runway on December 29, he knew something was wrong.
"That day, the plane's nose was pointing toward our restaurant instead of toward the runway. Never before had a plane faced this direction," he told the ABC.
"There was that banging noise, and when I looked, the aircraft was slightly tilted and flying at a very low altitude.
"At such a low altitude, it should have already turned toward the runway and been prepared for landing — but since it was facing our restaurant, I felt something was wrong."
It was a tragic, terrifying six minutes that closed out what had already been a tumultuous year for the country, as Jeju Air flight 7C2216 barrelled at speed into a concrete wall, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.
At 8.57am on December 29, air traffic control at Muan Airport in the country's south issued a warning for bird activity in the area, having already authorised the plane to land a couple of minutes earlier, according to the country's transport ministry.
Just two minutes later, the pilot reported a bird strike and issued a mayday call, saying: "Bird strike, bird strike, go-around."
What came next unfolded at blinding speed.
The plane was authorised to land from the opposite direction, and made contact almost halfway down the 2,800m long runway.
It appeared that the landing gear hadn't been deployed, or had failed, and the plane slid at speed on its belly along the remaining 1,600 metres of tarmac before hurtling into a concrete wall located about 250 metres past the end of the runway, bursting into a fireball.
Mr Lee had run to the rooftop and captured a video of the horrifying accident that has been broadcast around the world.
"While I was filming, I captured the explosion too, and at that moment, the sound must have been incredibly loud … but because the flames were so enormous, I was so focused on them that it felt like I couldn't hear the sound," he recalled.
"At some point, I felt an intense wave of heat on my face. It felt like when you open the door to a sauna and that burst of heat hits you.
"At that moment, my mind was blank. When I actually saw the accident scene, it was so unbelievable that I found myself denying reality … I stayed in that dazed state for about 10 minutes … Then gradually, it started sinking in as reality."
Two flight attendants sitting at the back of the plane were rescued, but everyone else was killed.
As of yesterday, all the remains have finally been formally identified, and bereaved families were taken to the accident site via buses to mourn and pay their respects at an altar that's been set up near where the plane crashed.
The country's acting president Choi Sang-mok says funeral arrangements had begun and currently the most urgent matter is returning the bodies to their loved ones.
Police have also reportedly raided the airport as part of their investigation into the crash.
Except for two Thai nationals, everyone on board was South Korean.
Questions have since swirled about the tragedy.
Why wasn't the landing gear deployed? Why did the plane have to land so urgently? And why did it land so far down the runway?
But the biggest concern for experts and investigators picking through the wreckage may be the design of the runway itself.
While the location of a concrete barrier near the runway met Korean safety standards, some experts say catastrophe could have been avoided if it had never been built there.
'An atmosphere of rushed urgency in the cockpit'
Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae said the plane had been inspected on the day of the flight, and no issues were raised, including about the landing gear.
"The question about whether the landing gear was working properly or not is related to the accident investigation," he said.
He also insisted the training for pilots at Jeju Air was up to standard, with two full flight simulators in use at the airline — adding that the company would increase maintenance workers per aircraft from 12 to 12.9.
Aviation analyst and former military and commercial pilot John Nance told the ABC he was shocked that something like this could happen in South Korea.
"Because South Korea is full of serious safety people and the airlines are dedicated," he said.
"I would expect the same out of them as any American or Australian airline."
He explained that there were "so many possibilities" for what might have happened, and there was most likely a series of issues that led to the accident.
"It becomes pretty clear by analysing what we do know that there was an atmosphere of rushed urgency in the cockpit," Mr Nance said.
"Now, it could be because the bird strike was [to] both engines and it created a situation of loss of the engines.
"The captain was a 7,000-hour veteran … but all of us can make mistakes … what I see is an accelerated decision in the cockpit that led to the feeling they had no options, or a situation where they were committed to the runway, but they had no way of dissipating the energy."
Mr Nance said video appears to show a puff of smoke at the right engine while the plane was still in the air, which could have been the bird strike.
He added that while a plane can be flown with one engine, if they lost both, "you don't have a lot of choice," noting that the landing gear and wing flaps, which could have helped slow down the plane, didn't appear to have been deployed.
Why was there a concrete barrier near the runway?
Scrutiny has also been increasing about why there was such a solid structure at the end of the tarmac, and how the outcome might had been different had it been made out of a less solid material — or not been there at all.
But the transport ministry insisted the wall, which housed a navigation system known as a localiser, was installed within regulations.
At 250 metres past the runway it was further away than the minimum distance required, according to Korean news agency, Yonhap.
But Reuters reported that the airport's operating manual included comments that the embankment was too close to the end of the runway, recommending that its location be reviewed during a future planned expansion.
"If you slam into a concrete abutment at 120 to 140 miles an hour, you really don't have a chance of keeping that fuselage together," Mr Nance said.
"One of the sidebars following this should be a worldwide search for airports with this [kind of structure].
"I think if they had not had that abutment, everybody would have walked away — the pilot would have been able to dissipate energy [and] the airplane was not on fire."
The search for answers will take weeks
Two black boxes have been recovered, but it could take weeks to decode at least one of them, the flight data recorder, which was damaged in the crash.
Investigators determined that its contents can't be extracted in South Korea so it's going to be sent to America for analysis with the assistance of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
The South Korean transport ministry says it has extracted data from the other black box, the cockpit recorder, which should give crucial details about what was happening in the minutes before the accident.
But officials warned it could take about two days to convert that data into an audio file.
Mr Nance thinks though a preliminary report could be released within about two weeks.
Around 1,500 personnel scoured the area surrounding the charred carcass of the plane, with seating and other debris thrown across the landscape.
The country's acting president ordered an urgent audit of South Korea's entire aircraft operations system, with the transport ministry declaring it would inspect around 100 Boeing 737-800s operated by various local airlines.
"Even before the final results are out, we ask that officials transparently disclose the accident investigation process and promptly inform the bereaved families," acting President Choi Sang-mok said.
"As soon as the accident recovery is conducted, the transport ministry is requested to conduct an emergency safety inspection of the entire aircraft operation system to prevent recurrence of aircraft accidents."
Officials from the US Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as representatives from Boeing have joined the investigations.
In the meantime, the country rang in the new year deep in a week-long period of national mourning, as the families of those killed grapple with the loss of loved ones aged as young as three years old.
"Even now, thinking about it makes me choke up," said Mr Lee, who was planning on attending the memorial alter after closing his shop.
"I'm a father of a 14-month-old myself, and I heard there were children involved.
"When I think about those children, I can't help but cry out of sadness for them."
