A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, killing everyone aboard except for two flight attendants plucked from the wreckage.
A bird strike was cited by authorities as the likely cause of the crash – the worst-ever aviation disaster on South Korean soil – which flung passengers out of the plane and left it “almost completely destroyed”, according to fire officials.
Video showed the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames.
“Of the 179 dead, 65 have been identified,” the country’s fire agency said, adding that DNA retrieval had begun.
Inside the airport terminal, tearful family members gathered to wait for news.
An official began calling out the names of the 65 victims who had been identified, with each name triggering fresh cries of grief from waiting relatives.
Only two people – both flight attendants – were rescued from the crash, the fire department said.
“Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival,” a local fire official told families at a briefing, according to a statement released by the fire brigade.
Both black boxes – the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder – have been found, Deputy Transport Minister Joo Jong-wan said at a briefing.
All of the passengers were Korean apart from two Thais, with the youngest a three-year-old boy and the oldest a 78-year-old, authorities said.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
