UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – According to authorities, 175 passengers and 6 crew members were on board the plane which crashed as it landed at Muan airport in the southwest of the country. Rescue operations are underway.
A plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok (Thailand) crashed on Saturday evening at Muan airport, in the southwest of South Korea, killing at least 62 people (37 women and 25 men). “So far two people have been rescued, a passenger and a crew member.“, indicated the firefighters in a press release.
Domestic and international flights have all been canceled, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
“A landing gear malfunction”
The accident occurred as the budget airline Jeju Air plane, which was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members, was landing. According to the specialist site Flightradar, the aircraft is a Boeing 737-8AS which entered service in August 2009.
The crash appears to have been caused by “contact with birds, resulting in landing gear malfunction”, Yonhap reported.
Acting President Choi Sung-mok, appointed to lead the country on Friday after the previous acting president was removed amid a lingering political crisis, called for everything possible to ensure rescue operations.
Images broadcast by South Korean television channels on Sunday morning showed numerous emergency service vehicles and dozens of firefighters working around the completely charred wreckage of the plane.
Plane crashes in South Korea
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 out of the runway in strong winds at Busan-Gimhae airport (south), causing around ten minor injuries.
Plane accidents are very rare in South Korea. Last year, a passenger opened an emergency exit on an Asiana Airlines plane about to land. The aircraft was able to land normally, but several people were hospitalized.
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