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At least 80 people died on Sunday after a South Korean passenger jet crashed and burst into flames on landing, in what authorities said was one of the country's worst aviation disasters.
A Jeju Air flight was returning from Bangkok with 181 people on board when it failed to deploy its landing gear at Muan Airport in the south of the country.
Of the 175 passengers on board, 173 were South Korean nationals, while the remaining two were Thai nationals, according to the transport department. There were six other crew members on board.
Local television news footage showed the plane skidding down the runway before hitting a wall and bursting into flames. The plane's landing gear appears to have malfunctioned, according to the state emergency office.
The fire was contained and two people were rescued, according to Yonhap News. More than 30 trucks and several helicopters have been dispatched to the disaster.
South KoreaActing President Choi Sang-mok visited the scene on Sunday and ordered rescue efforts, urging emergency workers to “do their best in rescue operations, mobilize all available resources”.
Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of the crash, an airline spokesman said.
Television footage showed thick smoke billowing from the crashed plane, a twin-engine Boeing 737-800 jet, after the crash.
Fire officials told Yonhap that most of the passengers were feared dead. In a television report, officials pointed to a bird strike and bad weather as the cause of the crash.
The tragedy was the second fatal plane crash in recent days. Passenger plane of Azerbaijan Airlines An accident occurred in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, after being diverted over the Caspian Sea from Grozny, in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya.
US and Ukrainian officials blamed Russian anti-aircraft fire for the crash, in which 38 of the 67 people on board were killed. Russian authorities said heavy fog and a flock of birds caused the diversion in Grozny, but said it happened while Ukrainian fighter drones were attacking nearby cities.
Russian Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijan on Saturday “for a serious incident”, but did not speak about the allegations of Russian interference.