In South Korea, a plane catches fire on landing, killing at least 151 people

A passenger plane caught fire after hitting a concrete wall at the end of the runway while trying to land without its landing gear at Muan Airport in southwestern South Korea. causing at least 151 deaths, Sunday, December 29, according to a firefighter press release consulted by Agence France-Presse.

For now, only two survivors, members of the crew, have been identified by the firefighters. The authorities fear a much higher toll, the plane carrying 175 passengers and six crew members.

“The suspected cause of the accident is a collision with birds combined with adverse weather conditions. However, the exact reason will be announced following a joint investigation”said Lee Jeong-hyun, head of the Muan Fire Station, at a press briefing.

According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, the Jeju Air plane, which was arriving from Bangkok, landed on its belly shortly after 9 a.m. (local time) due to a possible power malfunction. its landing gear. A video broadcast by South Korean media shows the aircraft – a Boeing 737-8AS put into service in 2009, according to the specialist site Flightradar – then colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the periphery of the installation and being immediately engulfed in flames.

“Little chance of surviving”

Numerous emergency services vehicles and dozens of firefighters were mobilized around the carcass of the plane, completely charred except for the tail, and evacuated bodies wrapped in blue shrouds on stretchers.

“The passengers were ejected from the plane when it collided with a barrier, leaving them with little chance of survival”said a local fire official during a meeting with the victims' families. “The plane is almost completely destroyed and the identification of the people is proving difficult”he added.

All passengers were South Korean, except for two people of Thai nationality. After the accident, domestic and international flights to and from Muan Airport, some 300 kilometers south of Seoul, were canceled.

“Jeju Air will do everything in its power to deal with this accident. We offer our sincere apologies”wrote the company in a press release published Sunday on its social networks.

Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok called an emergency government meeting and asked to use all available resources to save the passengers and crew.

The crash of flight JJA-2216 comes as the country is plunged into a serious political crisis triggered by the unexpected attempted imposition of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was subsequently impeached. On Friday, South Korean lawmakers in turn impeached interim President Han Duck-soo and suspended him from office, leaving Vice Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok to take over as president. the state.

Rare accidents in South Korea

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 was taken out from the runway in strong winds at Gimhae International Airport (Pusan), in the south of the country, causing around ten minor injuries.

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 Taegu Airport in the southeast of the country. The aircraft was able to land normally, but several people were hospitalized.

The crash of an Air China Boeing 767 coming from Beijing killed 129 people on April 15, 2002. The plane hit a hill near Gimhae airport.

Before Sunday's accident, the last fatal accident for a South Korean airline was that of an Asiana Boeing 777 which missed its landing at the San Francisco airport in California, killing three people and injuring 182. July 6, 2013. And the deadliest disaster for a South Korean company remains that of a Korean Air Boeing 747 connecting 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 twenty-three crew members on 1^is September 1983.