South Korea | Plane crash leaves 179 dead, two survivors

(Muan) The crash of a Jeju Air airliner while landing in South Korea, likely following a collision with birds, killed 179 people on Sunday, the worst aviation disaster in history of the country.

Almost all of the 181 occupants of flight JJA-2216, which linked Bangkok to Muan in the south-west of South Korea, were killed in the accident, the final report shows 179 dead and two survivors.

“Of the 179 dead, 65 have been identified,” said the firefighters, specifying that DNA samples were in progress. The survivors are two crew members, who were rescued from the plane, which caught fire after an emergency landing.

The accident happened at 9:03 a.m. (7:03 p.m. Eastern) Sunday, according to authorities.

According to the Ministry of Territories, the control tower warned the flight crew of a collision with birds. The pilot issued a warning message (“Mayday”) before crashing two minutes later while attempting to land.

“The cause of the accident is presumed to be a collision with birds combined with adverse weather conditions. However, the exact cause will be announced after an investigation,” Lee Jeong-hyun, head of the fire station in Muan, a city about 290 kilometers south of Seoul, told a press briefing. .

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.

Identification difficile

“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 dead people is proving difficult,” he added.

The victims included two Thai nationals and six crew members.

An AFP photographer saw numerous emergency service vehicles and dozens of firefighters working around the wreckage of the plane, which was completely charred except for the tail.

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.

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.

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.

Pope Francis announced that he had prayed on Sunday for the victims of this air disaster.

“My thoughts are with the many families in South Korea who are grieving today after this dramatic air crash. I join in prayer with the survivors and the dead,” declared the sovereign pontiff after the Angelus prayer.

“Sincere apologies”

This crash, which occurs a few days after that of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan, where 38 people died, is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of the largest South Korean 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.

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, the April 15, 2002.

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.