A passenger plane skidded off the runway, crashed into a concrete fence and burst into flames at a South Korean airport Sunday after its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy. All but two of the 181 people on board died in one of the country's worst aviation disasters.
The Jeju Air plane crashed while landing in the town of Moan, about 290 kilometers south of Seoul. The transport ministry said the plane was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet that had arrived from Bangkok and that the accident occurred at 9:03 am.
A total of 179 people – 85 women, 84 men and 10 others whose gender was not immediately identifiable – died in the fire, South Korea's fire agency said. Emergency workers pulled two people, both crew members, to safety. Health officials said he was conscious and not in a life-threatening condition.
Of the 177 bodies found so far, authorities have so far identified 88 of them, the fire agency said. Most of the passengers were South Koreans as well as two Thai nationals. Thailand's foreign ministry said its embassy in Seoul had received confirmation from South Korean officials that two Thai passengers were among the dead.
The fire agency deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to control the fire. About 1,570 firefighters, police officers, soldiers and other personnel were also sent to the scene, according to the fire agency and the transport ministry.
Footage of the crash, broadcast by South Korean television channels, showed the plane sliding down the runway at high speed, its landing gear apparently still engaged, overrunning the runway and onto concrete on the outskirts of the facility. As the explosion hit the wall, other local TV stations broadcast footage showing black smoke billowing from the plane, which was engulfed in flames.
Moan Fire Station Chief Lee Jeong-hyun told a televised briefing that the plane was completely destroyed and only the tail assembly could be identified from the wreckage. Workers are examining various possibilities about what caused the crash, including whether the plane struck the birds, Lee said.
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Transport Ministry officials later said their initial review of communications records showed that the airport's control tower issued a bird strike warning shortly before the plane intended to land and directed its pilot to another area. Allowed to land. Officials said the pilot sent a distress signal shortly after the plane overshot the end of the runway and slid into the buffer zone before hitting a wall.
Senior transport ministry official Jo Jong-wan said workers have recovered flight data from the plane's black box and cockpit voice recorders, which will be examined by government experts investigating the cause of the crash and fire. . He said it could take months for investigators to complete their investigation. The runway of Moan airport will remain closed till January 1, the ministry said.
Thai Prime Minister Patongtern Shinawatra expressed his deepest condolences to the families of those affected by the incident in a post on social media platform X. Patongtern said he ordered the Foreign Ministry to provide immediate assistance.
In a statement, Thailand Airports Director Kerati Kajmanut confirmed that Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 to Suvarnabhumi Airport. Departed from the base with no reports of unusual conditions with the aircraft or on the runway.
In a statement, Jeju Air expressed its “deepest regret” over the accident and said it would “do its best to manage the aftermath of the accident.”
In a televised news conference, Kim E-bae, the president of Jeju Air, bowed with other top company officials as he apologized to the bereaved families and said he felt “full responsibility” for the incident. are Kim said the company had not identified any mechanical problems with the plane after regular inspections and would await the results of a government investigation into the cause of the incident.
Families wept as officials announced the names of some of the victims in a lounge at Moan airport.
Boeing said in a statement on X that it is in contact with Jeju Air and is ready to help the company deal with the accident.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts are with the passengers and crew,” Boeing said.
The incident comes as South Korea is embroiled in a major political crisis stemming from the spectacular imposition of martial law and the subsequent impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yul. Last Friday, South Korean lawmakers impeached and suspended Acting President Han Deok-soo, leaving Vice Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok to take over.
Choi, who traveled to the site in Moan, called on authorities to use all available resources to find the missing and identify the victims as soon as possible. The government has declared Moan a special disaster-affected area and declared a week of national mourning until Saturday to provide relief to the families of the victims.
Yoon's office said his chief secretary Chung Jin-seok chaired an emergency meeting among senior presidential staff to discuss the accident and briefed Choi on the details. Yoon expressed his condolences to the victims in a Facebook post.
The Moan crash is one of the deadliest disasters in South Korean aviation history. The last time South Korea suffered a major air disaster was in 1997, when a Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines plane crash-landed in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring nearly 200.
Sunday's incident was one of the worst landing accidents since the July 2007 crash that killed all 187 people on board and 12 on the ground when an Airbus A320 skidded off a runway in Sao Paulo and into a nearby building. was collided with. Compiled by the Flight Safety Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to improving aviation safety. In 2010, 158 people were killed when an Air India Express plane overshot a runway in Mangalore, India, and plunged into a ravine before bursting into flames, according to the Safety Foundation. World leaders expressed their sympathy for South Korea's handling of the tragedy.
During his Angelus prayer in Rome's St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis said he joins in “prayer for the living and the dead.” In a message issued by Tokyo's foreign ministry, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of so many precious lives”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on X that “every loss of life is an insurmountable tragedy” and offered his “heartfelt condolences” on behalf of the Ukrainian people and himself.
— With files from The Associated Press' Bobby Kina Calvan, Chalida Ekvithaiavichnokol, Jantamas Saksorunchai, Mari Yamaguchi and Giada Zampano
and copy 2024 Canadian Press