By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — 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.
The Jeju Air plane crashed while landing in the town of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) 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 crash happened at 9:03 a.m.
A total of 179 people — 85 women, 84 men and 10 others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable — died in the fire, the South Korean fire agency said. Emergency workers pulled two people, both crew members, to safety. Health officials said they are conscious and not in life-threatening condition.
Among the 177 bodies so far found, officials have so far identified 88 of them, the fire agency said. The passengers were predominantly South Korean, as well as two Thai nationals.
Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, where one of the survivors was hospitalized, said the man was being treated in an intensive care unit for fractures to his ribs, shoulder blade and upper spine. Ju said the man, whose name wasn’t released, told doctors he “woke up to find (himself) rescued.”
The fire agency deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the blaze. About 1,570 firefighters, police officers, soldiers and other officials were also sent to the site, according to the fire agency and transport ministry.
Footage of the crash aired 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. Other local TV stations aired footage showing thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the plane, which was engulfed in flames.
Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, told a televised briefing that the plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail assembly remaining recognizable among the wreckage. Lee said that workers were looking into various possibilities about what caused the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds, Lee said.
Transport Ministry officials later said their early assessment of 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 overshot the end of the runway and skidded across a buffer zone before hitting the wall, the officials said.
Senior Transport Ministry official Joo Jong-wan said workers have retrieved the flight data and cockpit voice recorders of the plane’s black box, which will be examined by government experts investigating the cause of the crash and fire. He said it may take months for investigators to complete their probe. The runway at the Muan airport will be closed until Jan. 1, the ministry said.
Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed deep condolences to the families of those affected by the accident in a post on social platform X. Paetongtarn said she ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide assistance immediately.
Kerati Kijmanawat, the director of Airports of Thailand, confirmed in a statement that Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 departed from Suvarnabhumi Airport with no reports of abnormal conditions with the aircraft or on the runway.
Jeju Air in a statement expressed its “deep apology” over the crash and said it will do its “utmost to manage the aftermath of the accident.”
In a televised news conference, Kim E-bae, Jeju Air’s president, bowed deeply with other senior company officials as he apologized to bereaved families and said he feels “full responsibility” for the incident. 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.
Family members wailed as officials announced the names of some victims at a lounge in the Muan airport.
Boeing said in a statement on X it was in contact with Jeju Air and is ready to support the company in dealing with the crash.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” Boeing said.
The incident came as South Korea is embroiled into a huge political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment. Last Friday, South Korean lawmakers impeached acting President Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, leading Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok to take over.
Choi, who traveled to the site in Muan, called for officials to employ all available resources to find the missing and identify the victims as soon as possible. The government declared Muan a special disaster zone to provide assistance to the families of victims and designated a weeklong national mourning period through Saturday.
Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, presided over an emergency meeting between senior presidential staff to discuss the crash and reported the details to Choi. Yoon expressed condolences to the victims in a Facebook posting.
The Muan crash is one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history. The last time South Korea suffered a large-scale 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 and injuring approximately 200.
Sunday’s accident was also one of the worst landing mishaps since a July 2007 crash that 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. World leaders expressed their sympathies as South Korea dealt with the tragedy.
During his Angelus prayer in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said he joins in “prayer for the survivors and the dead.” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of many precious lives” in a message released through Tokyo’s Foreign Ministry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that “each life lost is an immeasurable tragedy” and that he extends his “heartfelt condolences” on behalf of Ukrainian people and himself.
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Associated Press journalists Bobby Caina Calvan in New York, Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.