As of 10.25am at least 177 people are known to have been killed after a Jeju Air plane crashed during a landing at an airport in the southern city of Muan in South Korea.
Emergency workers pulled two crew members out of the Boeing 737-800 jet, which was carrying 181 people and returning from Thailand’s capital Bangkok.
The remaining missing people are presumed to have been killed, according to firefighting authorities.
Local media footage showed the plane skidding down the runway, apparently without its landing gear deployed, before slamming into a wall and exploding.
South Korea’s emergency office said the jet’s landing gear appears to have malfunctioned.
Lee Jeong-hyeon, head of the Muan fire station, said investigations were ongoing into various possibilities about what may have caused the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds.
Witnesses reported hearing a “loud explosion” and seeing sparks in the plane’s engine before it crashed (see 7am post).
The cause of the crash is “presumed to have been a bird strike”, one of the two rescued crew members told local media (see post at 8.40am).
Workers have retrieved the plane’s black box and taken out the flight data recorder, but are still looking for the cockpit voice recording device.
Transport ministry officials have said their early assessment of communications records shows the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land.
Passengers on the flight included two Thai nationals and the rest are believed to be South Koreans.
Jeju Air expressed its “deep apology” over the crash and the company’s president Kim E-bae bowed deeply with other senior company officials as he apologised to bereaved families, saying he feels “full responsibility” for the incident.
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