MUAN COUNTY, South Korea: At least 124 people were killed when an airliner landed without wheels, veering off the runway and erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday (Dec 29), the national fire agency said.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 181 people on board, was attempting to land shortly after 9am (8am, Singapore time) at the airport in the south of the country, South Korea’s transport ministry said.
It is the deadliest air accident involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades, according to ministry data.
The twin-engine Boeing 737-800 can be seen in video from local media skidding down the runway with no apparent landing gear before slamming into a wall in an explosion of flame and debris. Other photos showed smoke and fire engulfing parts of the plane.
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. The fire was extinguished as of 1pm, Lee said.
“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognise,” he said.
Authorities have switched from rescue to recovery operations and because of the force of the impact, are searching nearby areas for bodies possibly thrown from the plane, Lee added.
The two crew members were being treated at hospitals with medium to severe injuries, said the head of the local public health centre.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/south-korean-air-crash-muan-international-airport-jeju-air-4829826
