At least 96 people were killed when a Jeju Air plane from Bangkok crashed at Muan Airport in South Korea on Sunday. The aircraft crashed and caught fire upon landing, likely following a collision with birds.
“So far, two survivors, both crew members, and 96 dead,” firefighters said in a statement. They had so far indicated that one of the two survivors was a passenger.
According to the authorities, the accident of flight JJA-2216 occurred on Sunday at 9:03 a.m. (1:03 a.m. in Switzerland). 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 cause of the accident is suspected to be a collision with birds combined with unfavorable weather conditions. However, the exact cause will be announced after an investigation,” said the head of Muan Fire Station .
The plane was “almost completely destroyed”, a local fire official said during a meeting with the victims' families. “Identifying the deceased is proving difficult,” he added. “The passengers were ejected from the plane when it collided with a barrier, leaving them with little chance of survival.”
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 plane then appeared to hit an obstacle at the end of the runway and was immediately engulfed in flames.
Images broadcast by South Korean television channels show numerous emergency service vehicles and dozens of firefighters working around the wreckage 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 will travel to Muan on Sunday afternoon, his office said. “All agencies concerned […] must mobilize all available resources to save people,” he ordered in a press release.
This is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of the largest South Korean 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.
“Sincere apologies”
“Jeju Air will do everything in its power to deal with this accident. We offer our sincere apologies,” the company wrote in a statement published on its social networks on Sunday.
Plane crashes are very rare in South Korea. In May 2023, a passenger opened an emergency exit of an Asiana Airlines Airbus A321-200 about to land at Daegu Airport in the southeast of the country. The aircraft was able to land normally, but several people were hospitalized.
The most serious plane accident to take place in South Korea remains the crash on a hill near Busan-Gimhae Airport of an Air China Boeing 767 from Beijing, which killed 129 people. died April 15, 2002.
Before Sunday's accident, the last fatal accident at a South Korean airline was that of an Asiana Boeing 777 which missed its landing at San Francisco airport, killing three people and injuring 182 on July 6. 2013.
The deadliest disaster for a South Korean airline remains that of a Korean Air Boeing 747 flying from New York to Seoul via Anchorage (Alaska), which was shot down by a Soviet fighter over the Sea of Japan, causing the death of 246 passengers and 23 crew members on September 1, 1983.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
