A plane that left the runway in Muan, South Korea, has exploded. The death toll had already risen to 120.
A plane with 181 people on board crashed and burst into flames at Muan airport in southwestern South Korea. It is not yet clear exactly how many people have died. In a final assessment around 7 a.m. Belgian time, the authorities speak of 120 deaths. Two people – one passenger and one crew member – survived the crash and were taken to Mokpo hospital. The fire brigade assumes that the other people on board have died and are now looking for bodies in the wreckage.
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The accident took place at 9:07 a.m. local time (1:07 a.m. Belgian time), Yonhap news agency reported. A passenger plane operated by South Korean airline Jeju Air, a Boeing 737-8AS, landed without its landing gear functioning, skidded off the runway on its belly and crashed into a wall at the airport. The plane then exploded and went up in flames. The plane returned from the Thai capital Bangkok. It had 175 passengers and six crew members on board. With the exception of two Thais, they were all South Koreans.
“A bird collision combined with adverse weather conditions is believed to be the cause of the accident,” Lee Jeong-hyun, head of the Muan Fire Department, said at a news conference. The exact cause of the crash is under investigation. Acting President Choi Sang-mok arrived at the airport around noon. He has given orders to do everything possible for the search operations. He also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and promised them all possible help from the government. All flights to and from Muan have been canceled for the time being.
For South Korea, it is the deadliest plane disaster since 1997, when more than 200 people were killed when a Korean Air flight crashed near Guam. The last time a South Korean airline experienced a crash was 11 years ago, when an Asiana Airlines flight crashed in San Francisco. Jeju Air is South Korea’s largest low-cost airline, with more than 200 flights per day.
