South Korea pulls plane crash report after victims' families protest

MUAN - South Korean officials on Saturday abruptly canceled the release of an intermediate report into the deadly crash of a Jeju Air passenger jet, after relatives of the victims disrupted a news conference, saying that the report was inadequate.

- By JOHN YOON

The confrontational scene unfolded after officials had earlier briefed the families privately on the latest stage of the investigation. The officials were planning to publicly release some findings from an analysis of the engines on the Boeing 737-800 that crashed Dec. 29, killing 179 of the 181 people on board.

A lawyer for the relatives, who saw the officials' presentation in the private meeting, said the investigators had found no fault with the engines and instead appeared to blame birds—which struck the engines minutes before it made an emergency landing—and the plane's pilots prematurely.