By Ju-min Park and Dogyun Kim

MUAN COUNTY, South Korea (Reuters) – Empty desks and a calendar marking days off after Christmas sit in a South Korean workplace the place 5 co-workers as soon as deliberate a vacation to Thailand which led to tragedy on Sunday when their return Jeju Air flight crashed.

The 5 feminine colleagues, who flew to Bangkok to have fun promotions, have been among the many 179 individuals killed when flight 7C2216 crashed on the Muan Worldwide Airport within the deadliest air catastrophe on South Korean soil.

Nonetheless in shock on the lack of their co-workers and associates, colleagues sporting black ribbons cried at their desks within the public schooling workplace on Tuesday, as they watched over a sufferer’s empty desk.

White chrysanthemums had been positioned on the desk in mourning, whereas bins with books and stationery awaited one other sufferer who was supposed to maneuver desks within the New Yr.

“It doesn’t feel real,” mentioned Lee Dae-keun, an official at Jeollanamdo Workplace of Training who labored in the identical division as one sufferer.

“She is still lingering in my eyes. Whenever seeing flowers on that empty desk, ah, sadness rushes in.”

Reuters just isn’t naming the victims on the request of colleagues who requested for privateness.

The useless workers have been an previous group of labor associates who had been trying ahead to their long-awaited journey, mentioned their co-workers.

“As a colleague, she was really hard-working and nice, a kind colleague to others,” Lee mentioned with a sigh. “She always told me to stay happy and positive.”

Lee mentioned he had gone to the airport with different co-workers to offer meals or cost telephones for his or her colleagues’ bereaving households who have been tenting out.

On the workplace, officers set up an altar the place colleagues and neighbours got here to pay condolences.

Bowing in tears on the altar, Lee Kwi-sun, a faculty chef, vividly remembered her final second of holding fingers with one other sufferer.

“Our names are similar. We were like lost siblings that just met now. So we said to meet again, and held each other’s hands and laughed and parted ways,” she recalled.

“I talked to her a lot personally and professionally, so this just breaks my heart,” she mentioned