EPA
More than 170 people died in Jeju Air crash
More than 170 people died when a plane crashed as it landed in South Korea on Sunday morning.
The Jeju Air plane went off the runway before colliding with a wall at Muan International Airport in the southwest of the country.
The plane, which was returning from Bangkok, Thailand, was carrying 181 people, of whom 179 died, while two crew members were rescued from the wreckage.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident, which firefighters said could have been caused by a bird strike and bad weather. However, experts have warned that the accident could have been caused by a number of factors.
Were bird strikes a factor in the accident?
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A fire chief said the tail was identifiable but “you cannot recognize the shape of the rest of the plane.”
The flight, 7C2216, was a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, Korea’s most popular low-cost airline.
The plane arrived in Muan around 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT).
A South Korean transport official said the plane attempted to land but was forced to wait after air traffic control issued a bird strike warning – an alert about the risk of colliding with birds.
About two minutes later, the pilot called a mayday and air traffic command cleared the plane to land in the opposite direction, the official said.
Video appears to show the plane landing without using its wheels or any other landing gear. It skidded off the track and crashed into a wall before catching fire.
A witness told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that he heard a “loud bang” followed by a “series of explosions.”
Videos from the scene showed the plane on fire, with smoke billowing into the sky. Firefighters have since extinguished the fire.
BBC reports from site of South Korea’s deadliest plane crash
Lee Jeong-hyun, Muan fire chief, told a televised news briefing that the plane’s tail was identifiable but “you cannot recognize the shape of the rest of the plane.”
He said bird strikes and bad weather could be to blame for the crash, but the exact cause is still under investigation. The plane’s flight and voice recorders were recovered, although Yonhap news agency reported the former was damaged.
A passenger on the plane sent a message to a relative, saying a bird “was stuck in the wing” and the plane could not land, local media reported.
Authorities, however, have not confirmed whether the plane actually collided with birds.
Jeju Air’s chief executive said the accident was not due to “maintenance issues,” Yonhap reported.
South Korea’s transportation department said the flight’s chief pilot had held the position since 2019 and had more than 6,800 hours of flight experience.
Geoffrey Thomas, an aviation expert and editor-in-chief of Airline News, told the BBC that South Korea and its airlines were considered “industry best practice” and that the plane and airline had an “excellent safety record.”
He added: “A lot of things in this tragedy don’t make sense.”
EPA
This accident is the deadliest in South Korean history.
What is a bird strike?
A bird strike is a collision between a flying aircraft and a bird. They are very common: in the United Kingdom, more than 1,400 bird strikes were reported in 2022, of which only around 100 hit the plane, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.
The most well-known bird strike occurred in 2009, when an Airbus plane made an emergency landing on New York’s Hudson River after colliding with a flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew members survived.
Professor Doug Drury, who teaches aviation at CQUniversity Australia, wrote in an article for The Conversation this summer that Boeing planes are equipped with turbofan engines, which can be seriously damaged in the event of a bird strike .
He said pilots are trained to be especially vigilant early in the morning or at sunset, when birds are most active.
But some aviation experts are skeptical whether a bird collision could have caused the crash at Muan airport.
“Typically they (bird strikes) alone do not cause the loss of an aircraft,” Mr Thomas told Reuters.
Australian aviation safety expert Geoffrey Dell also told the news agency: “I have never seen a bird strike prevent the landing gear from extending.”
Who was on board?
The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members. Two of the passengers were Thai and the others were believed to be South Korean, authorities said. Many are believed to be returning from a Christmas holiday in Thailand.
The official death toll stands at 179, making it the deadliest plane crash in South Korean history.
All passengers and four crew members died.
Authorities have so far identified at least 88 bodies.
Five of the people who died were children under 10 years old. The youngest passenger was a three-year-old boy and the oldest was 78, authorities said, citing the passengers’ manifest.
South Korea’s national fire agency said two members of the flight crew, a man and a woman, survived the crash. They were found in the tail of the plane after the crash and taken to hospital, according to the release.
More than 1,500 emergency responders were deployed as part of the recovery efforts, including 490 firefighters and 455 police officers. They searched the area around the runway for parts of the plane and those on board.
EPA
Rescuers searched around the runway for parts of the plane.
What was the response?
Acting President Choi Sang-mok declared a special disaster zone in Muan, making central government funds available to the local government and victims.
All flights to and from Muan International Airport have been canceled.
Families of the crash victims went to the airport hoping to find out what happened to their loved ones. Reuters video footage shows officials reading the victims’ names aloud.
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Relatives gathered at the airport
Airport authorities and the Red Cross set up more than a dozen tents at the airport to allow bereaved families to grieve privately.
Crying echoed through the terminal. Some are frustrated with the time it takes to identify the bodies.
Jeju Air apologized to the families. Its chief executive told a news conference that the airline had no history of accidents. Sunday’s crash is believed to be the only fatal accident since the airline launched in 2005.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing offered its condolences to those affected.
Choi, South Korea’s acting president, said: “I express my deepest condolences to the many victims of the incident. I will do everything I can to ensure that the injured recover quickly.”
The government has declared a period of national mourning for the country for the next seven days, during which flags at government offices will be lowered.
