At least 124 people were killed when a Jeju Air plane landed without wheels, veering off the runway and slammed into a wall at South Korea’s Muan International Airport, the deadliest air accident involving a South Korean aircraft in nearly three decades, reported Reuters based on information released by South Korea’s national fire agency and transport ministry.
On Sunday, Jeju Air flight 7C2216 arriving from Thai capital Bangkok with 181 people on board was attempting to land shortly after 9:00am local time at the airport in the southern part of the country, transport ministry said.
The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 can be seen in video from local media skidding down the runway with no apparent landing gear before slamming into a wall and exploded. The Boeing jet was manufactured in 2009.
So far, two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane. The fire was extinguished as of 1 pm, according to the fire agency.
The two crew members were being treated at hospitals with medium to severe injuries.
The crash is the worst by any South Korean airline since a 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed more than 200 people, according to transportation ministry data.
Hours after the crash, mortuary vehicles were lined up to take bodies away, and authorities said a temporary morgue had been established.
The crash site smelled of aviation fuel and blood, and workers in protective suits and masks combed the area while soldiers searched through bushes.
Yonhap news agency cited a fire official as saying most of the 175 passengers and six crew were presumed dead.
Investigators are looking into bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors. Yonhap cited airport authorities as saying a bird strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction.
The control tower issued a bird strike warning and shortly afterward the pilots declared mayday, a transport ministry official said, without specifying whether the flight said it struck any birds.
About one minute after the mayday call the aircraft made its ill-fated attempt to land, the official said.
A passenger texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing, the News1 agency reported. The person’s final message was, “Should I say my last words?”
The passengers onboard included two Thai nationals and the rest are believed to be South Koreans, according to the transportation ministry.
Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said two Thai women were on the plane, aged 22 and 45, and details were still being verified.
Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologised for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing.
He said the cause of the crash was still unknown, that the aircraft had no record of accidents and there were no early signs of malfunction. The airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the bereaved its top priority, Kim said.
Founded in 2005, Jeju Air is a low-cost airline that operates international routes to Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines, in addition to numerous domestic flights.
Boeing said in a statement via email, “We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them. We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”
All domestic and international flights at Muan airport had been cancelled, Yonhap reported.
South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok arrived at the scene of the accident and said the government was putting all its resources into dealing with the crash.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sent condolences to the families of the dead and injured in a post on X, saying she had instructed the foreign ministry to provide assistance.
