South Korea will remove a concrete structure at the runway of one of its southern airports, the scene of a plane crash that killed all but two of the 181 people on board last month.

Son Chang-wan was in office while works were undertaken at Muan International Airport. Last month, a plane crashed into a concrete barrier there, killing 179 people.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it had ordered plans for localizers to be placed underground or replaced with lightweight metal structures within the year

South Korea will tear down concrete walls at several airports, including Muan International Airport, after the Jeju Air plane crash in December.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea has decided to extend to April 18 the shutdown of Muan international airport where a Jeju Air passenger jet crashed last month, the transport ministry said on Saturday. The airport is the site of the Dec. 29 crash of the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 jet that killed 179 passengers on board.

Experts have suggested the casualty count in the air crash could have been lower had a concrete structure at Muan airport not existed

Son Chang-wan, a former president of the state-run Korea Airports Corporation, who spearheaded a controversial facility upgrade at Muan International Airport, was found dead at his home in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province,

South Korea will extend runway safety areas and redesign infrastructure after the crash of a Jeju Air Co flight last month that killed almost everyone on board, sparking criticism that the design of the airport might have exacerbated the accident.

Seven airports will also have their runway safety areas adapted following a review of all South Korea's airports that was carried out after the crash - the deadliest in the country's history. The Jeju Air flight was bringing passengers home from Thailand after Christmas when it made an emergency landing at Muan airport and exploded after slamming into a concrete barrier at the end of the runway.