At least 47 people were killed Sunday in the crash of a Jeju Air plane from Bangkok, which crashed and caught fire while landing at Muan airport in southwest China. South Korea.
“So far, two survivors and 47 deaths confirmed,” firefighters announced in a statement, as rescue operations continue. The two people rescued at this stage are a passenger and a crew member, they explained.
Several passengers were pulled from the rear of the plane, said Lee Hyeon-ji, head of the South Jeolla province fire response team.
According to authorities, the accident occurred at 9:03 a.m. (00:03 GMT) on Sunday. The plane was carrying 175 passengers, including two Thai nationals, and six crew members, between Bangkok and Muan, a city located about 290 kilometers south of the capital Seoul.
The crash appeared to have been caused by “contact with birds, leading to a malfunction of the landing gear,” South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. The plane landed on its belly and caught fire when it hit a fence at the end of the runway, she added.
Engulfed in flames
A video broadcast by local channel MBC shows the aircraft – a Boeing 737-8AS which entered service in 2009, according to the specialist site Flightradar – landing with smoke escaping from the engines. The entire plane was then engulfed in flames.
| © AFP Passersby watch images of the crash on a television screen at a train station in Seoul, December 29, 2024. |
Images broadcast by South Korean television channels show numerous emergency service vehicles and dozens of firefighters working around the carcass of the plane, completely charred except for the tail, and evacuating on stretchers of bodies wrapped in blue shrouds.
Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok chaired an emergency government meeting and is traveling to Muan on Sunday afternoon, his office said. “All relevant agencies (…) must mobilize all available resources to save people,” he ordered in a statement.
This is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of South Korea's largest low-cost airlines, founded in 2005.
On August 12, 2007, a Jeju Air Bombardier Q400 carrying 74 passengers went off the runway in strong winds at Busan-Gimhae airport (south), causing around ten minor injuries.
Plane crashes are very rare in South Korea.
Last year, a passenger opened an emergency exit on an Asiana Airlines plane about to land. The aircraft was able to land normally, but several people were hospitalized.
