Death toll in Jeju Air plane crash rises to 179

179 people have been confirmed dead in Jeju Air plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea, with only two survivors.

Jeju Air (089590.KS), arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was attempting to land shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the airport in the south of the country, South Korea’s transport ministry said.

Two crew members survived and were being treated for injuries on Sunday, December 29, 2024.

The deadliest air accident in South Korea was also the worst involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades, according to the transport ministry.

The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 was seen in local media video skidding down the runway with no visible landing gear before crashing into navigation equipment and a wall in an explosion of flames and debris.

“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognise,” Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a press briefing.

The two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane, Lee said. They were being treated at hospitals with medium to severe injuries, said the head of the local public health centre.

120 die as plane crash-lands in South Korean airport

Authorities combed nearby areas for bodies possibly thrown from the plane, Lee said.

Investigators are examining bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee said. Yonhap news agency cited airport authorities as saying a bird strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction.

The crash was the worst for any South Korean airline since a 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed more than 200 people, according to transportation ministry data. The previous worst on South Korean soil was an Air China crash that killed 129 in 2002.

Experts said the bird strike report and the way the aircraft attempted to land raised more questions than answers.

“A bird strike is not unusual, problems with an undercarriage are not unusual. Bird strikes happen far more often, but typically they don’t cause the loss of an airplane by themselves,” said Airline News editor Geoffrey Thomas.

Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civil investigation into the crash and automatically involve the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States where the plane was designed and built.

The Star