A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people crashed and caught fire on Sunday, apparently following a collision with birds while landing at Muan Airport in southwest South Korea , an accident which left at least 120 dead according to firefighters. “For now, two survivors and 120 dead“, indicated the firefighters in a press release. They had previously clarified that the two survivors extracted from the wreckage of the plane were members of the crew.
According to authorities, the accident of flight JJA-2216, one of the deadliest in South Korean history, occurred at 9:03 a.m. (00:03 GMT) on Sunday. The plane was carrying 175 passengers, including two Thai nationals, and six crew members between Bangkok and Muan, a city about 290 kilometers south of the capital Seoul. “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 investigation.“, said Lee Jeong-hyun, head of the Muan Fire Station, at a press briefing. A video broadcast by local channel MBC shows the plane – 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.
“Little chance of surviving”
“The passengers were ejected from the plane when it collided with a barrier, leaving them with little chance of survival.“, said a local fire official during a meeting with the victims’ families.”The plane was almost completely destroyed and the identification of the deceased proved difficult. he added. Images broadcast by South Korean television channels show numerous emergency service vehicles and dozens of firefighters working around the wreckage of the plane, completely charred except for the tail, and evacuating the bodies wrapped in stretchers on stretchers. blue shrouds.
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 travel to Muan on Sunday afternoon, his office announced. “All agencies concerned […] We must mobilize all available resources to save people,” he ordered in a statement.
Hitting birds in flight is the pilot’s fear
It was 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 was left the track 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 you our sincere apologies», Wrote the company in a press release published on Sunday on its social networks. Plane accidents are very rare in South Korea. The deadliest in the country 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 a fear of pilots, especially when it comes to jets whose engines can quickly lose power or even shut down completely after ingesting a bird.
In 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 made a forced landing on the Hudson River in New York after its two engines shut down and sucked in birds. The accident became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” because all passengers and crew escaped alive.
