Muan County, South Korea (Reuters) -At least 167 people were killed when a Jeju Air plane belly-landed and veered off the runway, exploding in a fireball as it collided with a wall at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday, according to the national fire agency.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, which arrived from Thailand’s capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was attempting to land at the country’s southern airport shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT), according to South Korea’s transport ministry.
Two people, both crew members, were rescued, and officials say the rest are presumed dead.
According to ministry data, this is the deadliest air accident ever on South Korean soil, as well as the worst involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades.
The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 was seen skidding down the runway with no apparent landing gear before colliding with a wall, causing an explosion of flames and debris. Other photographs showed smoke and fire engulfing portions of the plane.
Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a briefing that two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the burning plane’s tail section. Lee reported that the fire had been extinguished as of 1 p.m.
“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognise,” said the engineer.
Authorities switched from rescue to recovery operations, and because of the force of the impact, they were looking for bodies that may have been thrown from the plane, Lee said.
The two crew members were being treated in hospitals for medium to severe injuries, according to the head of the local public health centre.
‘MY LAST WORDS’
Hours after the crash, family members gathered in the airport’s arrival area, some crying and hugging, while Red Cross volunteers distributed blankets.
Families screamed and wept as a medic announced the names of 22 victims identified by fingerprints.
Papers were distributed for families to write down their contact information.
One relative stood at a microphone to request more information from authorities. “My older brother died and I don’t know what’s going on,” he told me. “I don’t know.”
Another person asked journalists not to film. “We are not monkeys in a zoo,” he explained. “We are the bereaved families.”
Mortuary vehicles lined up outside to transport bodies, and officials said a temporary morgue had been established.
According to Reuters witnesses, the crash site smelled of aviation fuel and blood, and workers wearing protective suits and masks combed the area while soldiers searched through the bushes.
Authorities were working to rescue people in the tail section, an airport official told Reuters shortly after the crash.
According to transportation ministry data, this is the worst crash by a South Korean airline since the 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam, which killed over 200 people. The worst incident on South Korean soil was an Air China crash that killed 129 people.
Lee stated that investigators are looking into possible factors such as bird strikes and weather conditions. According to Yonhap, airport authorities believe a bird strike caused the landing gear to malfunction.
The control tower issued a bird strike warning, and the pilots declared mayday shortly thereafter, according to a transport ministry official, without specifying whether the flight reported striking any birds.
According to the official, the aircraft made an unsuccessful attempt to land shortly after the mayday call.
According to News1, a passenger texted a relative to report that a bird had become stuck in the wing. The person’s final message read, “Should I say my last words?”
According to the transportation ministry, the passengers included two Thai nationals, with the remainder believed to be South Koreans.
JEJU AIR SAYS BEREAVED ARE TOP PRIORITY
According to the transport ministry, Jeju Air’s Boeing 737-800 jet was manufactured in 2009.
Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologized for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing.
He stated that the cause of the crash was still unknown, that the aircraft had no prior accidents, and that there were no early indications of malfunction. Kim stated that the airline will cooperate with investigators and prioritize support for the bereaved.
According to Kerati Kijmanawat, president of Airports of Thailand, no abnormal conditions were reported as the aircraft left Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
It is the first fatal flight for Jeju Air, a low-cost airline founded in 2005 that is second only to Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines in terms of passenger volume in South Korea.
The accident occurred just three weeks after it began regular flights from Muan to Bangkok and other Asian cities on December 8.
Muan International is one of South Korea’s smallest airports, but the number of international passengers increased nearly 20 times to 310,702 from January to November this year, compared to the same period in 2022, according to government statistics.
Boeing said in an emailed statement, “We are in contact with Jeju Air about flight 2216 and are ready to assist them. We send our heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost loved ones, and our thoughts are with the passengers and crew.
A request for comment was not immediately responded to by the United States Federal Aviation Administration.
Yonhap reported that all domestic and international flights at Muan Airport had been cancelled.
South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok, who was appointed interim leader of the country on Friday amid an ongoing political crisis, arrived at the scene of the accident and stated that the government was devoting all of its resources to dealing with the crash.
The plane carried two Thai women, aged 22 and 45, according to Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub, who added that details were still being verified.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed condolences to the families of the deceased and injured in a post on X, stating that she had directed the foreign ministry to provide assistance.
The ministry said in a statement that it was in contact with South Korean authorities.
