SEOUL – At least 28 people were killed when a commercial airliner crashed at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday, a spokesman for the country’s national fire agency said.
The plane, carrying 175 passengers and six crew members, skidded off the runway while landing and caught fire after the crash, a spokesman for the National Fire Agency said.
Two people, a passenger and a crew member, were rescued, the spokesman said.
The flight originated in Bangkok, the spokesperson said.
The first reports of the accident were made between 9:03 a.m. and 9:13 a.m. local time (7:03 p.m. and 9:13 p.m. ET), the spokesperson said. Firefighters extinguished the initial fire at 9:46 local time.
Eighty firefighters and 32 fire trucks responded to the crash site at the airport in the southern city of Muan, the spokesman said.
South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, and other officials called for immediate and full mobilization efforts “to put out the fire and rescue people,” the Ministry of the Interior and Security said in a statement.
The presidential office said in a text message that an emergency meeting was being held over the plane crash.
This is a development history. Please check back for updates.
