Scores of people were killed on Sunday when a passenger jet crash-landed at an airport in southwestern South Korea, with the aircraft careening down the runway on its belly before bursting into flames.
At least 96 people have been confirmed dead so far, according to the local fire department. Two people, both crew members, were pulled alive from the crash site however rescuers have warned there is little hope of finding further survivors.
Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 from Bangkok was carrying 175 passengers and six crew when disaster struck at the airport in Muan county, just after 9 a.m. local time Sunday (7 p.m. ET Saturday). The accident was caused by a landing gear malfunction, officials said.
Footage of Sunday’s crash broadcast by multiple South Korean news outlets showed the plane sliding on its belly at high speed, hitting an earthen embankment and erupting in a fireball.
Neither the back nor front landing gear was visible in the footage – broadcast by networks including YTN, JTBC and MBC – as smoke poured from the back of the sliding aircraft.
Firefighters were later seen using water cannons to extinguish the blazing wreckage of the aircraft, which was listed as a Boeing 737-800 on flight-tracking site FlightAware. Several parts of the aircraft were also seen strewn across the runway.
Firefighters and rescue team members work on the runway of Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. (Lee Young-ju/Newsis via AP) – Lee Young-ju/Newsis/AP
The victims include 47 males, 48 females, and one child whose gender could not be determined, according to the South Jeolla Fire Service. Both of the survivors were crew members, one male and one female, according to the rescue team.
Two Thai nationals were among those on board, according to the South Korean Land Ministry, which said officers from the national Incident Investigation Committee had arrived to look into what caused the accident.
Rescue workers will search for the “black box” flight data recorders after recovering the bodies of the remaining victims, the Transport Ministry said in a briefing. The recorders offer aviation safety investigators critical facts when piecing together what happened after an incident.
More than 700 personnel from the police, military, and coast guard have been mobilized for on-site response efforts, the ministry added.
Jeju Air’s chief executive said the aircraft had shown “no signs of issues” prior to Sunday’s accident.
“At this time, it is difficult to determine the cause of the accident, and we have to wait for the official announcement of the investigation by the relevant government agency,” Kim Yi-bae said during a press briefing at the airport.
South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, arrived at the crash site in the early afternoon. Choi had earlier instructed emergency responders to mobilize “all available” equipment and personnel to respond to the crash, according to a press release by the interior and safety ministry.
The tragedy comes only two days into Choi’s acting presidency, the latest chapter in a time of political chaos in South Korea.
The country’s current president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was stripped of his powers by parliament two weeks ago following a short-lived martial law order that plunged the country into political disarray. He is currently suspended while a top court decides his fate.
Han Duck-soo, the man who stepped in to replace Yoon as acting president, was impeached by parliament on Friday, meaning Choi – the finance minister and deputy prime minister – stepped in for him.
Sunday’s crash is “very perplexing” given that both the aircraft and carrier have a strong safety record and flying conditions were excellent, an aviation journalist said.
The Boeing 737-800 is one of the most widely used aircraft in the world and each one is used for about four or five flights per day, Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline News, told CNN’s Paula Newton.
“It is the most reliable aircraft in the world, and it’s been in service for 20 years,” he said. “Everybody knows how it works. And it works really, really well. And the maintenance done in [South] Korea is as good as it gets around the world.”
South Korean fire officials have said there may have been a landing gear malfunction and footage showed the aircraft sliding on its belly.
“It’s a little bit unclear whether or not the undercarriage collapsed on landing or whether the undercarriage was not deployed at all. This is a really serious issue that obviously investigators will be very much focused on,” Thomas said.
He added “it is perplexing” that the crash happened, given it was landing under dry and sunny conditions at a good airport.
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