Fiery plane crash kills 179 in worst airline disaster in South Korea
(VOVWORLD) - The
deadliest air accident ever in South Korea killed 179 people on Sunday, when an airliner belly-landed and skidded off the end of the runway, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall at Muan International Airport.
 Firefighters carry out extinguishing operations on an aircraft which drove off runaway at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, December 29, 2024. (Yonhap via REUTERS) |
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was attempting to land shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the airport in the south of the country, South Korea's transport ministry said.
Two crew members survived and were being treated for injuries.
The deadliest air accident on South Korean soil was also the worst involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades, according to the transport ministry.
The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 was seen in local media video skidding down the runway with no visible landing gear before crashing into navigation equipment and a wall in an explosion of flames and debris.
"Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognise," Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a press briefing.
The two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane, Lee said.
The crash is the worst by any South Korean airline since a 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed more than 200 people, according to transportation ministry data. The worst on South Korean soil was an Air China crash that killed 129.
Investigators are looking into bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee said. Yonhap cited airport authorities as saying a bird strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction.
The control tower issued a bird strike warning and shortly afterward the pilots declared mayday and then attempted to land from the opposite direction, a transport ministry official said.