The crash of a Jeju Air plane while landing in Muan, South Korea, likely following a collision with birds, left at least 167 dead on Sunday, an unprecedented air disaster in Korea South.
The chances of finding other survivors, in addition to the two crew members extracted from the burning carcass shortly after the accident early in the morning, are diminishing as the hours pass.
As night fell, firefighters raised their death toll to 167 confirmed deaths out of the 181 people on board flight JJA-2216 which linked Bangkok to Muan in the southwest of South Korea: 175 passengers, including two nationals Thai, and six crew members.
The accident occurred at 9:03 a.m. (00:03 GMT) on Sunday, according to authorities.
According to the Ministry of Territories, the control tower warned the flight crew of a collision with birds. The pilot issued a warning message (“Mayday”) before crashing two minutes later while attempting to land.
“The cause of the accident is believed to be a collision with birds combined with unfavorable weather conditions. However, the exact cause will be announced after an investigation,” Lee Jeong told a press briefing. -hyun, head of the fire station in Muan, a city located about 290 kilometers south of Seoul.
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 hit a wall at the end of the runway and was immediately engulfed in flames.
– Identification difficile –
“The passengers were ejected from the plane when it collided with a barrier, leaving them with little chance of survival,” a local fire official said during a meeting with the victims’ families. “The plane is almost completely destroyed and the identification of the deceased is proving difficult.”
An AFP photographer saw numerous emergency service vehicles and dozens of firefighters working around the wreckage of the plane, which was completely charred except for the tail.
Debris from seats and suitcases littered the ground around the track, reflecting the violence of the impact.
In the terminal, tearful relatives were gathered waiting for information, the screens usually listing departures and arrivals displaying the names, dates of birth and nationalities of the victims.
Acting head of state appointed Friday in a country shaken by a serious political crisis, Choi Sang-mok chaired an emergency government meeting and went to Muan in the afternoon. “All relevant agencies (…) must mobilize all available resources to save people,” he ordered in a statement.
The manufacturer Boeing indicated that it was in contact with Jeju Air and was “ready to support them”.
“We offer our sincere apologies,” the company wrote in a statement published on its social networks on Sunday.
– “Sincere apologies” –
This crash, which occurs a few days after that of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan, where 38 people died, 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.
Plane crashes are very rare in South Korea. The deadliest to have taken place in the country until then was the crash on a hill near Busan-Gimhae airport of an Air China Boeing 767 coming from Beijing, which left 129 dead on April 15 2002.
Hitting birds in flight is the dread of pilots, especially when it comes to jet planes whose engines can quickly lose power or even stop completely after ingesting a bird.
In 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 made a forced landing in the Hudson River, in New York, after the shutdown of its two reactors which had sucked in birds. The accident became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” as all passengers and crew escaped alive.
