MUAN COUNTY, SOUTH KOREA:
South Korea’s deadliest air crash on record killed 179 people on Sunday when a jetliner landed on its belly and skidded off the end of the runway, causing a fireball as it hit a wall at Muan International Airport.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, from the Thai capital Bangkok, with 175 passengers and six crew members on board, was attempting to land shortly after 9 a.m. local time at the southern airport. , said the South Korean Ministry of Transport. Two crew members survived and were being treated for their injuries.
The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 was seen in local media video landing on its belly at Muan International Airport and skidding off the runway as smoke billowed from the engines, before crashing into a wall and explode into flames, killing everyone on board. except two crew members torn from the wreckage.
“Only the rear part retains some shape, and the rest (of the plane) seems almost impossible to recognize,” Lee Jung-hyun, Muan fire chief, said at a press briefing. The two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail of the burning plane, Lee said.
“The passengers were ejected from the plane after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival,” a local fire official said at a press briefing, according to a press release published by the firefighters. Only two people, both flight attendants, were rescued from the crash, according to the release.
“Of the 179 dead, 65 have been identified,” said the country’s firefighters, adding that DNA analyzes had begun. Inside the airport terminal, tearful family members gathered to wait for news. An official began calling out the names of the 65 victims, each name triggering new cries of pain.
All the passengers were Korean except for two Thais, the youngest a three-year-old boy and the oldest a 78-year-old man, authorities said. The two survivors were transferred to separate hospitals in Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported.
Pieces of airplane seats and luggage were scattered on the ground next to the runway. Authorities searched nearby areas for bodies that may have been thrown from the plane, Lee said. Investigators are looking at bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee said.
The control tower had issued a bird strike warning and, shortly after, the pilots declared the emergency light and then attempted to land in the opposite direction, a Transport Ministry official said. A passenger texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing, News1 reported.
It was the worst accident at a South Korean airline since Korean Air’s accident in Guam in 1997, which killed more than 200 people, according to Transportation Ministry data. The worst precedent to occur on South Korean soil was the crash of an Air China plane that killed 129 people in 2002.
Yonhap News Agency cited airport authorities as saying a bird strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction. Experts, however, said the report of the bird strike and how the plane attempted to land raised more questions than answers.
“A bird strike is not unusual, just like problems with landing gear are not unusual,” said Geoffrey Thomas, editor in chief of Airline News. “Bird strikes are occurring much more often, but they do not typically result in the loss of an aircraft alone.”
In accordance with global aviation rules, South Korea will conduct a civilian investigation into the accident and automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States, where the plane was built. The NTSB later said it was leading a team of U.S. investigators to assist the South Korean aviation authority.
Hours after the crash, family members gathered in the airport arrivals area, some crying and hugging as Red Cross volunteers handed out blankets. Many of the victims appeared to be residents of nearby areas returning from vacation, authorities said.
Families screamed and cried as a doctor announced the names of victims identified by their fingerprints. Documents were distributed to families so that they could write down their contact details. Mortuary vehicles lined up outside to take away the bodies, and authorities said a temporary morgue had been set up.
The plane was manufactured in 2009, the Transport Ministry said. The Boeing model involved in the crash, a 737-800, is one of the most widely used airliners in the world, with a generally strong safety record. It was developed well before the MAX variant implicated in a recent Boeing safety crisis.
It is the first fatal flight for Jeju Air, a budget airline founded in 2005 that ranks behind Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines in terms of passenger numbers in the country. Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologized for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing.
Kim said the plane had no accident record and there were no early signs of malfunction, adding that the airline would cooperate with investigators and make support for the bereaved its top priority.
All domestic and international flights at the airport were canceled after the accident, Yonhap reported. The crash site smelled of airplane fuel and blood, according to Reuters witnesses. Workers wearing protective suits and masks combed the area while soldiers searched the bushes.
The accident occurred just three weeks after Jeju Air began regular flights between Muan and Bangkok and other Asian cities on December 8. Muan International is one of South Korea’s smallest airports, but it has become much busier in recent years.
Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok, named the country’s acting leader on Friday amid a lingering political crisis, arrived at the scene of the accident and said the government was putting all its resources into action. faced with the accident.
Two Thai women were on board the plane, aged 22 and 45, Thai government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub said. Thailand’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed that the two men were among those killed. Thai authorities said there were no abnormal conditions when the plane took off.
The two black boxes – the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – were found at the crash site, about 288 kilometers southwest of the capital Seoul, the vice minister said of Transport Joo Jong-wan during a press briefing.
