Plane crashes and bursts into flames on landing in South Korea, killing 179

SEOUL – A passenger plane skidded off a runway at a South Korean airport on Sunday, crashed into a concrete fence and burst into flames after its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy. All but two of the 181 people on board died in one of the nation’s worst aviation disasters.

The Jeju Air plane crashed while landing in the city of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul. The Transport Ministry said the plane was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 that had arrived from Bangkok and that the crash happened at 9:03am.

A total of 179 people – 85 women, 84 men and 10 others whose gender was not immediately identifiable – died in the fire, the South Korean fire agency said. Emergency workers pulled two people, both crew members, to safety. Health officials said they are conscious and not life-threatening.

Of the 177 bodies found so far, officials have so far identified 88 of them, the fire agency said. The passengers were mostly South Koreans, as well as two Thai nationals.

Ju Woong, director of Seoul’s Ewha Womans University Hospital, where one of the survivors was admitted, said the man was being treated in an intensive care unit for fractures to his ribs, shoulder blade and upper spine. Ju said the man, whose name has not been released, told doctors he “woke up and was saved.”

Images of the crash broadcast by South Korean television channels showed the plane skidding down the runway at high speed, apparently with the landing gear still closed, overshooting the runway and crashing head-on into a concrete wall at the edge of the facility, triggering a accident. explosion. Other local television stations broadcast images showing thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the plane, which was engulfed in flames.

Lee Jeong-hyeon, head of the Muan Fire Station, said in a televised briefing that the plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail assembly remaining recognizable among the wreckage. Lee said workers are looking into various possibilities as to the cause of the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds, Lee said.

Transport Ministry officials later said their early review of communications records showed the airport’s control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land and gave its pilot permission to land in -a different area. The pilot sent a distress signal shortly before the crash, officials said.

Senior Transport Ministry official Joo Jong-wan said workers retrieved the flight data and voice recorders from the cockpit of the plane’s black box. He said it could take months for investigators to complete their investigation. The runway at Muan Airport will be closed until January 1, the ministry said.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed his deepest condolences to the families of those affected by the accident in a post on social media platform X. Paetongtarn said he had ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide immediate assistance.

Boonchuay Duangmanee, the father of a Thai victim, told The Associated Press that his daughter, Jongluk, had been working in a factory in South Korea for several years and had returned to Thailand to visit her family.

“I heard the plane exploded in Korea this morning. But I didn’t expect my daughter to be on this flight at all,” he said.

“I never thought this would be the last time we would see each other forever.”

Kerati Kijmanawat, Director of Airports of Thailand, confirmed in a statement that Jeju Air Flight 7C 2216 took off from Suvarnabhumi Airport without reporting abnormal conditions with the aircraft or on the runway.

Jeju Air expressed its “profound apologies” for the accident in a statement and said it would do “everything possible to manage the consequences of the accident.”

In a televised news conference, Kim E-bae, the chairman of Jeju Air, bowed deeply in front of other senior company officials as he apologized to the grieving families and said he felt “full responsibility” for the incident. Kim said the company had not identified any mechanical problems with the aircraft following regular checks and would await the results of government investigations into the cause of the incident.

Family members wailed as officials announced the names of some victims in a Muan airport lounge.

Boeing said in a statement to X that it has been in contact with Jeju Air and is ready to support the company in handling the accident.

“We express our deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” Boeing said.

The incident occurred as South Korea is embroiled in a huge political crisis sparked by President Yoon Suk Yeol. the stunning imposition of martial law and impeachment. Last Friday, South Korean lawmakers deposed acting president Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, making Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok take over.

Choi, who traveled to the scene in Muan, asked officials to commit all available resources to find the missing and identify the victims as soon as possible. The government declared Muan a special disaster area to provide assistance to the families of the victims and designated a one-week period of national mourning until Saturday.

Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, chaired an emergency meeting of senior presidential staff to discuss the accident and reported the details to Choi. Yoon expressed his condolences to the victims in a Facebook post.

During his Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s in Rome, Pope Francis said he joins “the prayer for the survivors and the dead.” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of many precious lives” in a message released by the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo.

The Muan crash is one of the deadliest disasters in South Korean aviation history. The last time South Korea suffered a major air disaster was in 1997, when a Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines plane crashed in San Francisco, killing three and injuring about 200.

Sunday’s crash was also one of the worst landing accidents since a July 2007 crash that killed all 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground when an Airbus A320 skidded off a the slippery airstrip in Sao Paulo and collided with a nearby building, according to the data. compiled by the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving aviation safety. In 2010, 158 people died when an Air India Express overran a runway in Mangalore, India, and crashed into a gorge before bursting into flames, according to the safety foundation.

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Associated Press reporters Bobby Caina Calvan in New York, Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.