At least 124 people were killed when a plane landed without wheels, skidded off the runway and burst into a fireball as it crashed into a wall at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday, the national fire agency said.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from Bangkok, the Thai capital, with 181 people on board, was trying to land shortly after 9:00 a.m. (00:00 GMT) at the airport in the south of the country, according to the Ministry. of Transport of South Korea.
It is the deadliest plane crash involving a South Korean airline in almost three decades, according to ministry data.
In a video from local media, the twin-engine Boeing 737-800 can be seen sliding down the runway with no apparent landing gear before crashing into a wall in an explosion of flames and debris. Other photographs showed smoke and fire engulfing parts of the plane.
Two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane, Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun said at a briefing. The fire was extinguished at 1:00 p.m., Lee said.
“Only the tail part retains a bit of shape, and the rest (of the plane) looks almost impossible to recognize,” he said.
Authorities have moved from rescue to recovery operations and, because of the force of the impact, are searching nearby areas for bodies possibly thrown from the plane, Lee added.
The two crew members were being treated in hospitals with medium to severe injuries, the director of the local public health center said.
‘My last words’
Hours after the crash, mortuary vehicles were lined up to remove bodies and authorities said a temporary morgue had been set up.
The crash site smelled of jet fuel and blood, according to Reuters Witnesses and workers in protective suits and masks combed the area while soldiers searched the bushes.
Yonhap The news agency quoted a fire official as saying that most of the 175 passengers and six crew members were presumed dead.
Authorities had worked to rescue people in the queue section, an airport official said. Reuters shortly after the accident.
The accident is the worst suffered by any South Korean airline since the Korean Air accident in Guam in 1997, in which more than 200 people died, according to data from the Ministry of Transportation.
Investigators are looking into bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee said. Yonhap cited airport authorities as saying that the bird strike could have caused the landing gear to malfunction.
A passenger sent a text message to a family member to inform them that a bird was trapped in the wing, News1 reported. The person’s final message was: “Should I say my last words?”
The passengers included two Thai nationals and the rest were believed to be South Koreans, according to the Ministry of Transport.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft, operated by Jeju Air, was manufactured in 2009, the Transport Ministry said.
Jeju Air says mourners are top priority
Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologized for the accident and bowed deeply during a televised briefing.
He said the cause of the crash was still unknown, that the plane had no history of accidents and that there were no early signs of malfunction. The airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the bereaved its top priority, Kim said.
No abnormal conditions were reported when the plane took off from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, said Kerati Kijmanawat, president of Thailand Airports.
Founded in 2005, Jeju Air is a low-cost airline that operates international routes to Japan, Thailand and the Philippines, in addition to numerous domestic flights.
Boeing said in an emailed statement: “We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”
The US Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
All domestic and international flights at Muan airport were cancelled. Yonhap reported.
South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok, named the country’s interim leader on Friday amid an ongoing political crisis, arrived at the crash site and said the government was putting all its resources into dealing with the accident. .
Two Thai women, aged 22 and 45, were on the plane, Thai government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub said, adding that details were still being verified.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sent her condolences to the families of the dead and injured in a post on X, saying she had ordered the Foreign Ministry to provide assistance.
The ministry said in a statement that it was in contact with South Korean authorities.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a post on X that he was “deeply saddened” by the accident.
“In this time of grief, our thoughts and prayers are with the grieving families and with the people and Government of the Republic of Korea.”
