According to the authorities, the accident of flight JJA-2216 which linked Bangkok to Muan (southwest), one of the deadliest in the history of South Korea, occurred on Sunday at 9:03 a.m. (00:03 GMT). The plane was carrying 175 passengers, including two Thai nationals, and six crew members.
A clue to the cause of the accident
“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.
Difficult identification of victims
“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.
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.
Acting head of state appointed Friday in a country shaken by a serious political crisis, Choi Sang-mok chaired an emergency government meeting and is due to go to Muan on Sunday afternoon, his office announced. desk. “All relevant agencies (…) must mobilize all available resources to save people,” he ordered in a statement.
Boeing said it was in contact with Jeju Air and was “ready to support them”.
“Sincere apologies” from the airline
This is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest 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.
“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.
Plane accidents 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.
