At least 120 people were killed after a passenger plane veered off a runway at a South Korean airport on Sunday and rammed into a concrete wall, marking one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.
Preliminary reports suggest the Jeju Air passenger plane’s front landing gear failed to deploy as the plane with 181 people aboard was seen skidding across the airstrip with its landing gear closed at the Muan airport, 290km south of the capital Seoul.
South Korea’s national fire agency says 120 people have been confirmed dead. Initial reports suggested that at least 96 people died in the fire, reported the fire agency. It said the fire at the site of the plane collision was almost doused but the emergency team was still trying to rescue people from inside the plane.
A passenger and one crew member were rescued from the tail of the plane and are reported to have sustained mid to severe level injuries. The agency said it has deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire.
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Visuals of the crash showed the plane landing on its belly, leaving a trail of grey smoke as the landing gear remained shut. The plane, engulfed in thick pillows of black smoke, collided head-on with a concrete wall at the end of the strip.
The time of the crash was confirmed as 9.03am local time, the transport ministry said.
Two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane, Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a briefing.
Emergency officials have said they are examining the cause of the fire as initial signs showed the plane’s landing gear likely malfunctioned.
The plane was returning from Bangkok and included two Thai nationals, officials from the transport ministry said.
This marks one of the deadliest aviation disasters in South Korea and a large-scale air disaster after 1997 when a Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing all 228 people on board.
Thailand’s prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed deep condolences to the families of those affected by the accident and said she had ordered the ministry of foreign affairs to provide assistance immediately.
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