A Jeju Air plane crashed before catching fire on Sunday as it landed in Muan. At least 167 people died, making it the worst air disaster in the history of South Korea, where plane crashes are very rare. 20 Minutes takes stock of the drama.
What happened?
Jeju Air flight 2216, arriving from Bangkok with 181 people on board, crashed upon landing at Muan Airport, about 290 kilometers south of the capital Seoul, at 9:03 a.m. local time according to the Ministry of Territories. The crew issued a distress message after a first landing attempt, during which the control tower warned the crew that the aircraft had been struck by birds.
The pilot issued a warning message before crashing two minutes later while trying to land again. 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.
How many people were on board the aircraft?
The plane was carrying 175 travelers, including two Thai nationals, as well as six crew members. At the end of the afternoon, 167 deaths had been confirmed but the toll continues to rise and the chances of finding other survivors in addition to two crew members extracted shortly after the crash are diminishing.
Is the cause of the crash certain?
“The cause of the accident is presumed to be a collision with birds combined with adverse weather conditions. But the exact cause will be announced after an investigation,” Lee Jeong-hyun, head of the Muan Fire Station, said at a press briefing. Bird collisions, which can cause significant damage to an engine or the windshield, are the cause of many accidents.
The first elements reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported a “landing gear malfunction”. According to the same source, the aircraft landed on its belly and burst into flames when it hit a fence at the end of the runway.
How are relief operations taking place?
Emergency services sent dozens of vehicles and firefighters to the scene. Images broadcast by local television channels showed the aircraft completely charred, with the exception of the tail, and bodies wrapped in blue shrouds evacuated on stretchers. “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.”
Debris from seats and suitcases littered the ground around the track, reflecting the violence of the impact. In the terminal, tearful relatives were gathered waiting for information, the screens usually listing departures and arrivals displaying the names, dates of birth and nationalities of the victims.
What are the political and Boeing reactions?
Acting head of state appointed Friday in a country shaken by a serious political crisis, Choi Sang-mok chaired an emergency government meeting and went to Muan in the afternoon. “All agencies concerned […] must mobilize all available resources to save people,” he ordered in a press release.
Learn more about air disasters
The manufacturer Boeing indicated that it was in contact with Jeju Air and was “ready to support them”. “We offer our sincere apologies,” the company wrote in a statement published on its social networks on Sunday.
