SEOUL, South Korea — Two people survived and 179 were confirmed to have been killed in a plane crash at a South Korean airport Sunday. There were 181 passengers and crew on board.
The Jeju Air Flight 2216 skidded off the runway while landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea, bursting into flames after crashing, a spokesperson for the country’s National Fire Agency said.
The airport is about 180 miles south of Seoul.
The Boeing 737-800 plane took off from Bangkok, Thailand, shortly after 2 a.m. local time (2 p.m. Saturday ET), according to the flight-tracking platform FlightAware. It was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members, said Joo Jong-wan, director of the Aviation Policy Division at South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
At least two of the passengers were Thai, Joo said. Most of the rest are believed to be Korean.
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“The pilot declared mayday after issuing the bird strike alert,” Joo said, adding that the aircraft was “completely destroyed” in the crash.
The plane skidded along the runway and exploded as it rammed into a barrier, a video verified by NBC News showed. The tail of the plane was the only part that appeared to remain intact as flames engulfed the aircraft, sending a plume of black smoke into the air.
Deadliest airline disaster of the year
The country’s national fire agency confirmed the deaths of 179 people, making it the deadliest airline disaster of the year and what appears to be the first fatal accident in the history for the low-cost airline, which was founded in 2005.
The plane burst into flames after skidding across the runway at Muan International Airport, south of the Korean capital, Seoul. (Proto provided by South Korea’s Muan Fire Station via AP)
The agency said it had determined the identities of at least 65 of the victims. As the confirmed death toll ticked up in the hours after the crash, anxious families gathered at Muan International Airport, awaiting news of their loved ones. An announcer carefully read out the names of those confirmed dead.
Screams and cries erupted from family members as the identities were confirmed, according to reports by the local news agency, Newsis. Red Cross set up tents to provide privacy for grieving family members.
Among those killed, at least 84 were women and 82 were men. The genders of 11 other victims were not immediately identifiable.
Two crew members — a man and woman — were rescued and suffered moderate injuries but were conscious, Joo said.
Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that one of them, a 33-year-old flight attendant identified with his surname, Lee, suffered multiple injuries, including fractured ribs and traumatic spinal injuries, according to Ju Woong, director of Ewha Woman’s University Seoul Hospital where Lee was transferred.
“When I woke up, I had already been rescued,” Ju said Lee told the doctors, who added that he was in intensive care but was able to communicate well. “There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such,” Ju said.
One of the survivors is transferred from an ambulance to a medical facility. (Face digitally blurred at source / photo by YONHAP/AFP via Getty Images)
The other survivor, a 25-year-old woman with the surname Koo, was taken to Asan Medical Center in Seoul. Koo reportedly sustained injuries to her ankle and head, and was in stable condition.
A bird strike likely set off the disaster
The aviation official, Joo Jong-wan, provided an outline of the sequence of events leading to the disaster.
The plane initially attempted to land on the airport’s Runway 1, he said, but the pilots were then instructed by the control tower to land on the opposite side, Runway 19, due to a bird strike warning.
A minute later, the pilots sent a mayday signal following a bird strike and attempted to land on Runway 19.
While passing over the runway, the plane failed to lower the landing gear and struck a safety system called a localizer — which provides guidance during landing — and crashed into a wall, Joo said.
The crash happened at around 9:03 a.m. local time (7:03 p.m. ET Saturday), and firefighters put out the initial blaze at 9:46 a.m. local time, the fire agency spokesperson said.
The plane was “completely destroyed by fire,” Joo said at a briefing, adding investigators have retrieved both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, which will be key to providing insights into the last moments of the fatal crash.
The full investigation, he said, could take between six months and three years.
Eyewitness Lee Geun-Young was inside his restaurant, less than a quarter mile from the airport, when he heard loud banging noises coming from outside, he told the Korean news outlet Seoul Shinmun in an interview.
“Instead of heading toward the runway, the plane flew right over our store,” Lee, 49, said as he described the last moments of the ill-fated aircraft. Lee said he watched the plane as it turned around attempt landing on the runway.
“This plane was turning in a much tighter radius,” he said. “It felt dangerous so I immediately went up to the rooftop and started filming.”
Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae, fourth from left, and other executive members bow in apology for the crash.
The plane involved in the crash, a Boeing 737-800, is a narrow-body passenger jet that is used widely by airlines around the world. It is part of the Boeing’s Next-Generation family, and is one of the company’s safest airplanes.
Boeing extended its condolences to the families of the victims and said it was in contact with the airline. In a statement, Jeju Air extended its apologies to “everyone affected” by the incident.
“Above all, we offer our heartfelt condolences and apologies to the passengers who tragically lost their lives in the accident and to their bereaved families,” Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae said, assuming “full responsibility for this tragedy” and adding that the airline would provide support for the passengers’ families.
South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, called for immediate and full mobilization efforts “to put out the fire and rescue people,” the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said in a statement.
The presidential office said in a text briefing that an emergency meeting was being held over the crash.
In a statement, the country’s national defense ministry said it convened an emergency response team and deployed military personnel and equipment to the site to provide support.
Choi later arrived at the site and declared it a “special disaster zone” while expressing condolences to victims and their families and saying his government would “thoroughly investigate” what caused the crash.
Joo said more than 1,500 personnel from multiple agencies were conducting search and recovery efforts. The deceased were temporarily being kept at a makeshift mortuary set up at the airport, Joo said.
Stella Kim and Beomsu Jo reported from Seoul, South Korea, and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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