Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea kills 179 people
BREAKING: Plane crash in South Korea kills 179
A passenger plane skidded off a runway at a South Korean airport Sunday, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into flames 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.
A Jeju Air passenger plane carrying 181 people crashed into a concrete wall at a South Korean airport Sunday, killing all but two people on board after its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy.
The Boeing 737-800 arrived from Bangkok and crashed around 9:03 a.m. while attempting to land in Muan, about 180 miles south of Seoul, officials said. Of the 181 people on board, 179 of them died. Two crew members were pulled to safety and are expected to survive.
The passengers were mostly South Korean, along with two people from Thailand.
Video shared by South Korean television channels showed the plane skidding across the airstrip at high speed, apparently with its landing gear still closed, overrunning the runway and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the facility, triggering an explosion. The plane was immediately engulfed in flames, sending large billows of black smoke into the sky.
What caused the crash?
Officials are still investigating what caused the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds. Communication records show the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land and gave its pilot permission to land in a different area. The pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before the plane crashed. It could be months before investigators determine the cause.
Firefighters and rescue teams work at the wreckage of a passenger plane at Muan International Airport on December 29, 2024 in Muan-gun, South Korea.(Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
Kim E-bae, Jeju Air’s president, apologized to grieving families at a press conference and said he feels "full responsibility" for the accident.
Kim said the company hadn’t identified any mechanical problems with the aircraft following regular checkups and that he would wait for the results of government investigations into the cause of the incident.
Boeing released a statement following the crash and said it’s fully cooperating with Jeju Air and investigators.
"We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew," Boeing said.
Other deadly plane crashes
Sunday’s crash is among the deadliest in South Korean history. The last time a South Korean plane crashed 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 and injuring approximately 200.
In July 2007, a crash killed all 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground when an Airbus A320 slid off a slick airstrip in Sao Paulo and collided with a nearby building, according to data compiled by the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group aimed at improving air safety. In 2010, 158 people died when an Air India Express aircraft overshot a runway in Mangalore, India, and plummeted into a gorge before erupting into flames, according to the safety foundation.