Republic of Korea: Death toll from Jeju Air plane crash rises to 167
The number of people killed on Sunday, December 29 in the crash of a Jeju Air plane coming from Bangkok rose to 167, according to the updated report from the Yonhap News Agency. The plane crashed and caught fire while landing at Muan Airport in the southwest of the Republic of Korea.
>> Emergency landing of a Swiss plane in Austria
>> Azerbaijan declares national mourning after plane crash
>> Republic of Korea: 28 dead in landing plane crash
| Passersby watch images of the crash on a television screen at a train station in Seoul on December 29. |
| Photos : AFP/VNA/CVN |
According to authorities, the accident occurred at 9:03 a.m. (00:03 GMT) on Sunday. The plane was carrying 181 passengers, including two Thai nationals, and six crew members, between Bangkok and Muan, a city located about 290 km south of the capital Seoul.
The crash appears to have been caused by “contact with birds, leading to landing gear malfunction“, reported the South Korean news agency Yonhap. The plane landed on its belly and caught fire when it hit a fence at the end of the runway, it added.
| |
| At the scene of the plane crash landing at Muan International Airport on December 29. |
| Photos : Xinhua/VNA/CVN |
| |
Engulfed in flames
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 entire plane was then engulfed in flames.
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.
The South Korean President acting Choi Sang-mok chaired an emergency government meeting and is traveling to Muan on the afternoon of Sunday, December 29, his office said. “All agencies involved (…) must mobilize all available resources to save people“, he ordered in a press release.
This is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest low-cost airlines, founded in 2005.
| |
| Transporting a victim of the plane crash landing at Muan International Airport on December 29. |
| Photo : Xinhua/VNA/CVN |
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.
Plane accidents are very rare in the Republic of Korea.
Last year, a passenger opened an emergency exit on an Asiana Airlines plane about to land. The aircraft was able to land normally, but several people were hospitalized.
AFP-Yonhap News/VNA/CVN
