South Korea Plane Crash. Image credit: Anwar Ibrahim
(The Post News)- A tragic incident unfolded on Sunday when a passenger aircraft crashed while attempting to land at an airport in South Korea, resulting in the deaths of 179 out of the 181 individuals aboard. This calamity marks the most severe aviation disaster involving a South Korean airline in nearly thirty years, according to official reports.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, had departed from Bangkok and was in the process of landing at Muan International Airport in the southwestern region of the country when it met with disaster around 9 a.m. local time. Dramatic footage reveals the white-and-orange plane skidding down the runway on its belly, ultimately veering off and colliding with a barrier, which ignited a massive fireball.
While two crew members managed to escape from the tail section of the aircraft, all other passengers and crew were confirmed deceased by Sunday evening. Authorities are probing the causes of the crash, focusing on potential malfunctions of the landing gear, possible bird strikes, and adverse weather conditions.
Prior to the crash, Muan airport officials had alerted the pilots about the risk of bird strikes during their landing approach, as stated by Ju Jong-wan, a director at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. Shortly after the warning, the aircraft issued a mayday alert and subsequently crash-landed. The plane’s black boxes, crucial for understanding the circumstances surrounding the accident, have since been recovered.
Onboard Jeju Air flight 7C2216 were 175 passengers along with six crew members. As news spread, hundreds of anxious relatives—grandparents, parents, and children—gathered at Muan airport, hoping for updates on their loved ones.
A massive search operation involving over 1,500 personnel was initiated to comb through the wreckage. As investigators worked to identify the victims, officials displayed lists of confirmed names at the airport and collected DNA samples from family members for identification purposes.
Lee Jeong-hyeon, an official overseeing the search and rescue efforts, remarked on the extensive destruction of the aircraft, noting that it had fragmented to such an extent that only the tail was recognizable. “The rest of the fuselage was unidentifiable,” he lamented.
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