At least 120 people were killed this Sunday in the crash of a Jeju Air plane at Muan airport, in the southwest of South Korea, according to a new report announced by firefighters.
The plane, a Boeing 737-8AS from Bangkok (Thailand) with 181 people on board, crashed on landing and caught fire, apparently after hitting birds.
“So far, two survivors – both crew members – and 96 dead,” the firefighters said in a statement. They had so far indicated that one of the two survivors was a passenger.
The plane was “almost completely destroyed” and the passengers and crew members had “little chance of surviving,” firefighters said.
Little chance of finding survivors
“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,” he added.
Images broadcast by South Korean television channels show numerous emergency service vehicles and dozens of firefighters working around the carcass of the plane, completely charred except for the tail, and evacuating on stretchers of bodies wrapped in blue shrouds.
Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok chaired an emergency government meeting and is traveling to Muan on Sunday afternoon, his office said. “All relevant agencies (…) must mobilize all available resources to save people,” he ordered in a press release.
First fatal accident for this company
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. “Jeju Air will do everything in its power to deal with this accident. We offer our sincere apologies,” the company wrote in a statement published on its social networks on Sunday.
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.
