South Korea plane crash kills 179 with investigation under way

All passengers and a lot of the crew onboard a Jeju Air flight have died after the airplane crash-landed at an airport in South Korea on Sunday.

A complete of 179 of the 181 folks travelling on the Boeing 737-800 had been killed, with simply two survivors – each cabin employees – pulled from the burning wreckage.

The airplane landed at Muan Worldwide Airport within the nation’s south, skidding off the runway and crashing right into a wall in a fiery explosion.

Flight 2216 had been getting back from Bangkok, Thailand with six crew and 175 passengers, a lot of them holidaymakers.

An investigation into the trigger is below means – with consultants and officers pointing to numerous attainable components.

Distraught households gathered within the airport’s arrival corridor in tears, as they waited for our bodies to be recognized.

A few of these killed have been recognized solely by their fingerprints.

Maeng Gi-su, 78, informed the BBC his nephew and his nephew’s two sons had been on the airplane.

It was the household’s first journey overseas, to mark the youngest son ending his faculty entrance exams.

“I can not imagine the whole household has simply disappeared,” he mentioned. “My coronary heart aches a lot.”

The passengers included 173 South Koreans and two Thai nationals. They had been aged between three and 78, though most had been of their 40s, 50s and 60s, South Korea’s Yonhap information company reported.

Jongluk Doungmanee, 49, had been returning to South Korea from visiting household in Thailand. The mother-of-two lived in South Korea along with her husband and labored in agriculture.

In an interview with BBC Thai, her cousin Pornphichaya Chalermsin mentioned she had “solely ever seen such information from different nations and by no means thought it could contain Thai folks”, including: “Watching the video footage made me really feel much more distressed.”

Footage of the crash – which occurred shortly after 09:00 native time (00:00 GMT) – confirmed the plane touchdown with out wheels, overshooting the runway and crashing into the airport’s perimeter wall, earlier than it exploded into flames.

South Korean transport officers mentioned the airplane bumped into difficulties approaching touchdown – with the pilot, who had greater than 6,800 hours of flight expertise, pulling out of the primary try as a result of chicken interference.

Quickly after, the pilot issued a mayday name and was allowed to land in the other way to regular.

Officers have urged a chicken strike and dangerous climate could have performed a job however aviation consultants have questioned whether or not these had been sufficient to trigger such a lethal crash.

One passenger despatched a relative a message saying a chicken was caught within the wing, in keeping with the South Korean News1 company – however officers haven’t but confirmed whether or not the airplane was hit by birds.

Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline Information, informed the BBC “quite a lot of issues about this tragedy do not make sense”.

He mentioned South Korea and its airways had been thought-about “trade finest follow” and that each the plane and the airline have an “glorious security report”.

“At this level there are much more questions than now we have solutions,” Gregory Alegi, an aviation journalist and former trainer at Italy’s air pressure academy, informed the Reuters information company.

“Why was the airplane going so quick? Why had been the flaps not open? Why was the touchdown gear not down?”

The catastrophe is a nationwide tragedy for South Korea, which has been embroiled in a political disaster after President Yoon Suk Yeol and his momentary successor had been each impeached by parliament.

Appearing President Choi Sang-mok, who was solely appointed on Friday, visited the positioning of the crash on Sunday.

“I specific my deepest condolences to the various victims within the incident. I’ll do all I can for the injured to shortly get well,” he mentioned.

The Jeju Air crash is the worst for any South Korean airline for the reason that 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam, which killed greater than 200 folks. Previous to Sunday, the deadliest on South Korean soil was an Air China crash flight that killed 129.

The Muan airport crash additionally marks the primary deadly accident for Jeju Air, certainly one of South Korea’s largest low-cost airways, which was arrange in 2005.

Jeju Air bosses bowed deeply as they gave a public apology at a press convention on Sunday.

“We deeply apologise to all these affected by the incident. We’ll make each effort to resolve the state of affairs,” the agency mentioned in a press release.

Boeing, which manufactured the 737-800 jet, has mentioned it was in contact with the airline.