A passenger plane skidded off the runway at a South Korean airport on Sunday, crashed into a concrete fence and burst into flames after its front landing gear failed to operate. All but two of the 181 on board died in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.
The Jeju Air plane crashed on landing in the city of Muan, which is 290 kilometers south of Seoul. The Department of Transportation said the plane was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 that arrived from Bangkok and the accident happened at 9:03 am.
179 people, 85 women, 84 men and 10 others whose gender was not immediately identified, died in the fire, said the South Korean fire department. Emergency personnel pulled two people, both workers, to safety. Health officials said they know and are not in a life-threatening condition.
Among the 177 bodies found so far, officials have identified 88 of them, said the fire department. The passengers were mostly South Koreans, and two Thai nationals. Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its embassy in Seoul had received confirmation from South Korean authorities that two Thai passengers were among the dead.
The fire department deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire. About 1,570 firemen, policemen, soldiers and other officials were also sent to the area, according to the firemen and the Department of Transport.
Images of the crash broadcast by South Korean television showed the plane skidding across the airport at high speed, apparently with its landing gear still closed, overturning the runway and crashing head-on into a concrete wall at the edge of the facility, causing a loud noise. the explosion. Some local TV stations broadcast images showing black smoke billowing from the plane engulfed in flames.
Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, told a television news conference that the plane was completely destroyed, leaving the tail assembly in the wreckage. Lee said crews were looking into what caused the crash, including whether the plane was struck by birds, Lee said.
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Transport ministry officials later said their early review of communications records showed the airport’s control tower had issued a warning of a bird strike shortly before it intended to land and gave the pilot permission to land elsewhere. The pilot sent a distressing message just before the plane touched down at the end of the runway and skidded off the runway before crashing into a wall, officials said.
Transport Ministry chief executive Joo Jong-wan said workers have retrieved flight information and cockpit records from the plane’s black box, which will be examined by government experts investigating the cause of the crash and fire. He said it could take months for investigators to complete their investigation. The runway at Muan Airport will be closed until Jan. 1, said the department.
The Prime Minister of Thailand, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed his condolences to the families of those affected in this incident, writing on the X social media platform. Paetongtarn said he has ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide assistance immediately.
Kerati Kijmanawat, director of Airports of Thailand, confirmed in a statement that Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 departed from Suvarnabhumi Airport with no reports of unusual conditions on board or on the runway.
Jeju Air in a statement expressed its “profound apologies” for the accident and said it would “do everything possible to control the consequences of the accident.”
In a televised news conference, Kim E-bae, president of Jeju Air, bowed deeply along with other top company officials as he apologized to the bereaved families and said he felt “full responsibility” for the incident. Kim said the company had not yet identified mechanical problems in the plane following the inspection and said he would wait for the results of the government’s investigation into the cause of the incident.
Family members wept as officials announced the names of the other victims at the Muan airport lounge.
Boeing said in a statement to X that it has been in contact with Jeju Air and is ready to support the company in dealing with this accident.
“We offer our condolences to the families who have lost loved ones, and our thoughts are with the passengers and crew,” Boeing said.
The incident took place at a time when South Korea is facing a major political crisis caused by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law and impeachment. Last Friday, South Korean lawmakers deposed Acting President Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, which led to Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok taking over.
Choi, who visited the area in Muan, asked officials to use all available resources to find the missing and identify the victims immediately. The government declared Muan a special disaster area to provide aid to the families of the victims and designated a week-long national mourning period until Saturday.
Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, oversaw an emergency meeting among the president’s senior staff to discuss the accident and reported the details to Choi. Yoon expressed his condolences to the victims in a letter he wrote on Facebook.
The Muan crash is one of the worst tragedies in South Korean aviation history. The last time South Korea suffered a major aviation disaster was in 1997, when a Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight crashed in San Francisco, killing three and injuring around 200.
Sunday’s incident was also one of the worst landing accidents since the July 2007 crash that killed all 187 people on board and 12 were on the ground when an Airbus A320 crashed into a nearby building after taking off from Sao Paulo airport, according to data. put together by the Flight Safety Foundation, a non-profit group dedicated to improving air safety. In 2010, 158 people were killed when an Air India Express flight overran the runway in Mangalore, India, and plunged into a ravine before bursting into flames, according to a security source. World leaders expressed their sympathy when South Korea faced this tragedy.
In his Angelus prayer at St. Peter’s Square in Rome, Pope Francis said he was participating in “prayer for the survivors and the dead.” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of so many precious lives” in a statement issued by Tokyo’s Foreign Ministry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of X that “each life lost is an immeasurable tragedy” and offered “heartfelt condolences” on behalf of the Ukrainian people and himself.
— With files from The Associated Press by Bobby Caina Calvan, Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul, Jintamas Saksornchai, Mari Yamaguchi and Giada Zampano
© 2024 The Canadian Press
