A joint memorial altar has been set up at the Yuseong District Office in Daejeon to mourn the five workers killed in an explosion at Hanwha Aerospace's Daejeon plant. It comes four days after the disaster.
The Yuseong District Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said it began operating the joint altar at 9 a.m. Thursday in the lobby on the first floor of the Yuseong District Office. The altar will operate through the 25th, with hours running from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
About 30 bereaved family members were the first to visit the joint altar. Facing the memorial tablets of their loved ones, the families wept for a long time in front of the altar. The family of a severely injured victim who suffered full-body burns and is undergoing treatment also visited the altar to mourn the deceased.
Lee Yong-cheol, commissioner of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), also visited the joint altar to pay his respects after inspecting recovery operations at the accident site that day. "No value can take precedence over workers' 'safety,'" Lee said, calling for cooperation with related agencies to determine the cause of the accident and to strengthen safety management across the defense industry.
Officials elected in the Daejeon region in the 9th nationwide local elections held on the 3rd, along with local lawmakers, also visited the altar one after another. Mourning the victims, Daejeon Mayor-Elect Heo Tae-jung said, "It is deeply regrettable and we are sorry that an accident that should never have happened has occurred." He added, "As major fires and explosions have occurred in succession recently, we will establish thorough safety inspection and management systems to prevent a recurrence."
Son Jae-il, CEO of Hanwha Aerospace, along with company executives and employees, also visited the altar to pay their respects. "We will do our utmost to ease, even a little, the pain of the colleagues who tragically lost their lives and the bereaved families plunged into great grief," Son said. "We will fundamentally overhaul our safety system in the wake of this accident."
Meanwhile, Hanwha Aerospace decided to set up joint memorial altars at its sites nationwide in line with the operating period of the Yuseong District Office altar. The altars will be set up at 10 sites across the country, including the Hanwha Building in Janggyo-dong, Seoul, the Changwon No. 1, 2 and 3 plants, the Asan plant, the Daejeon plant, the Daejeon R&D Center, the Boeun plant, the Yeosu plant and the Pangyo R&D Center.
The accident occurred at around 10:59 a.m. on the 1st at Hanwha Aerospace's Daejeon plant. An explosion took place during the process of cleaning tools used to manufacture rocket propellant, killing five workers and leaving two with serious to minor injuries, resulting in seven casualties.
