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Jeju Air plane carried 181 people from Bangkok
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Two flight attendants were saved, according to firefighters
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Video shows plane skidding on its belly before crashing into wall
(Updated with increased balance sheet)
par Hongji Kim, Ju-min Park et Hyunsu Yim
A plane from South Korea’s Jeju Air went off the runway on Sunday and crashed into a wall at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing at least 151 people, officials said. South Korean firefighters.
The accident occurred shortly after 9:00 a.m. (00:00 GMT) during the landing of a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800, the South Korean Transport Ministry announced. The plane, coming from Bangkok, the Thai capital, was carrying 181 people, the ministry said.
A video broadcast by local media shows the aircraft skidding on its belly without visible landing gear before hitting a wall and catching fire.
It was the deadliest air disaster involving a South Korean airline in nearly 30 years.
“Only the rear of the plane retains its shape somewhat. It is almost impossible to recognize the rest (of the plane),” Muan Fire Chief Lee Jung-hyun told a conference press.
Two crew members, a woman and a man, were pulled out alive from the tail of the aircraft and the fire was extinguished around 1 p.m., he said.
Rescue operations are now aimed at finding bodies that may have been ejected from the aircraft during impact, Lee Jung-hyun added.
The two crew members who survived the accident, who had serious and serious injuries, were taken to hospital for treatment, the head of the local public health center said.
Yonhap News Agency, citing a fire official, reported that most of the 175 passengers and six crew members were presumed dead.
COOPERATION
Jeju Air general manager Kim E-bae apologized after the accident in a televised news conference.
The cause of the accident is still unknown, he said, adding that there were no warning signs of the aircraft malfunctioning. The airline will cooperate with investigators and make support for the bereaved its top priority.
Among the avenues investigated by investigators are a collision between a bird and the plane and weather conditions, Lee Jung-hyun said.
The control tower issued a warning about a risk of collision with birds and shortly after, the pilots issued a distress call, a Transport Ministry official said. He did not say whether the plane said it struck any birds.
One of the passengers sent a message to a relative to say that a bird was stuck in the wing of the plane, the News1 news agency reported.
Boeing announced in a statement that it was in contact with the airline and “stands ready to assist them.” The company also sent its condolences to the families of the victims.
All domestic and international flights were canceled at Muan Airport, Yonhap reported.
Acting South Korean President Choi Sung-mok, appointed to lead the country on Friday following the dismissal of his predecessor, arrived at the scene of the accident and announced that the government was mobilizing all its resources to act after the disaster.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sent her condolences to the victims’ families in a message posted on the social network X.
Two Thai women aged 22 and 45 were on the plane, Thai government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub said, adding that details were still being verified.
This accident is the most serious experienced by a South Korean airline since the Korean Air crash in Guam in 1997, which left more than 200 dead, according to data from the Ministry of Transport.
(Reporting Hongji Kim and Ju-min Park in Muan, Hyunsu Yim, Cynthia Kim and Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul, with David Brunnstrom and Gram Slattery in Washington, Panu Wongcha-um and Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok, written by Josh Smith; French version Camille Raynaud and Kate Entringer)
