The plane was carrying 175 passengers, including two Thai nationals, and six crew members.
The chances of finding other survivors, in addition to the two crew members extracted from the burning carcass shortly after the crash, diminished as the day progressed, several hours after firefighters brought the flames under control. While a provisional report shows at least 120 dead, 179 people are presumed dead, while two people were found alive.
Collision with birds and bad weather conditions
“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.
South Korean broadcaster MBC broadcast footage appearing to show an explosion in the plane’s right engine, possibly caused by a bird strike, just before it crashed. Muan International Airport.
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, the fear of pilots
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.
