South Korea plane crash kills 179 with investigation into cause under way
All passengers and most of the crew onboard a Jeju Air flight have died after the plane crash-landed at an airport in South Korea on Sunday.
A total of 179 of the 181 people travelling on the Boeing 737-800 were killed, with just two survivors - both cabin staff - pulled from the burning wreckage.
The plane landed at Muan International Airport in the country's south, skidding off the runway and crashing into a wall in a fiery explosion.
Flight 2216 had been returning from Bangkok, Thailand with six crew and 175 passengers, many of them holidaymakers.
An investigation into the cause is under way - with experts and officials pointing to a number of possible factors.
Distraught families gathered in the airport's arrival hall in tears, as they waited for bodies to be identified.
Some of those killed have been identified only by their fingerprints.
Maeng Gi-su, 78, told the BBC his nephew and his nephew's two sons had been on the plane.
"I can't believe the entire family has just disappeared," he said. "My heart aches so much."
The passengers included 173 South Koreans and two Thai nationals. They were aged between three and 78, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Jongluk Doungmanee, 49, had been returning to South Korea from visiting family in Thailand. The mother-of-two lived in South Korea with her husband and worked in agriculture.
In an interview with BBC Thai, her cousin Pornphichaya Chalermsin said she had "only ever seen such news from other countries and never thought it would involve Thai people", adding: "Watching the video footage made me feel even more distressed."
Footage of the crash - which happened shortly after 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT) - showed the aircraft landing without wheels, overshooting the runway and crashing into the airport's perimeter wall, before it exploded into flames.
South Korean transport officials said the plane ran into difficulties approaching landing - with the pilot, who had more than 6,800 hours of flight experience, pulling out of the first attempt due to bird interference.
Soon after, the pilot issued a mayday call and was allowed to land in the opposite direction to usual.
Officials have suggested a bird strike and bad weather may have played a role but aviation experts have questioned whether these were enough to cause such a deadly crash.
One passenger sent a relative a message saying a bird was stuck in the wing, according to the South Korean News1 agency - but officials have not yet confirmed whether the plane was hit by birds.
Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline News, told the BBC "a lot of things about this tragedy don't make sense".
He said South Korea and its airlines were considered "industry best practice" and that both the aircraft and the airline have an "excellent safety record".
"At this point there are a lot more questions than we have answers," Gregory Alegi, an aviation journalist and former teacher at Italy's air force academy, told the Reuters news agency.
"Why was the plane going so fast? Why were the flaps not open? Why was the landing gear not down?"
The disaster is a national tragedy for South Korea, which has been embroiled in a political crisis after President Yoon Suk Yeol and his temporary successor were both impeached by parliament.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok, who was only appointed on Friday, visited the site of the crash on Sunday.
"I express my deepest condolences to the many victims in the incident. I will do all I can for the injured to quickly recover," he said.
The crash is the worst for any South Korean airline since the 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam, which killed more than 200 people. Prior to Sunday, the deadliest on South Korean soil was an Air China crash flight that killed 129.
The Muan airport accident also marks the first fatal crash for Jeju Air, one of South Korea's largest low-cost airlines, which was set up in 2005.
Jeju Air bosses bowed deeply as they gave a public apology at a press conference on Sunday.
"We deeply apologise to all those affected by the incident. We will make every effort to resolve the situation," the firm said in a statement.
Boeing, which manufactured the 737-800 jet, has said it was in touch with the airline.
South Korea to inspect Boeing aircraft as it struggles to find cause of plane crash that killed 179
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials said Monday they will conduct safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines, as they struggle to determine what caused a plane crash that killed 179 people a day earlier.
Sunday’s crash, the country’s worst aviation disaster in decades, triggered an outpouring of national sympathy. Many people worry how effectively the South Korean government will handle the disaster as it grapples with a leadership vacuum following the recent successive impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s top two officials, amid political tumult caused by Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law earlier this month.
New acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday presided over a task force meeting on the crash and instructed authorities to conduct an emergency review of the country’s aircraft operation systems.
“The essence of a responsible response would be renovating the aviation safety systems on the whole to prevent recurrences of similar incidents and building a safer Republic of South Korea,” said Choi, who is also deputy prime minister and finance minister.
The Boeing 737-800 plane operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air aborted its first landing attempt for reasons that aren’t immediately clear. Then, during its second landing attempt, it received a bird strike warning from the ground control center before its pilot issued a distress signal. The plane landed without its front landing gear deployed, overshot the runway, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into a fireball.
Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines and now a consultant, said the Boeing 737-800 is a “proven airplane” that belongs to a different class of aircraft than the Boeing 737 Max jetliner that was linked to fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.
But South Korea’s Transport Ministry said Monday it plans to conduct safety inspections of all of the 101 Boeing 737-800 jetliners operated by the country’s airlines as well as a broader review into safety standards at Jeju Air, which operates 39 of those planes. Senior ministry official Joo Jong-wan said representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing were expected to arrive in South Korea on Monday to participate in the investigation.
Ministry officials also said they will look into whether the Muan airport’s localizer — a concrete fence housing a set of antennas designed to guide aircraft safely during landings — should have been made with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact.
Joo said the ministry has determined that similar concrete structures are in other domestic airports, including in Jeju Island and the southern cities of Yeosu and Pohang, as well as airports in the United States, Spain and South Africa.
Video of the crash indicated that the pilots did not deploy flaps or slats to slow the aircraft, suggesting a possible hydraulic failure, and did not manually lower the landing gear, suggesting they did not have time, said John Cox, a retired airline pilot and CEO of Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Despite that, the jetliner was under control and traveling in a straight line, and damage and injuries likely would have been minimized if not for the barrier being so close to the runway, Cox said.
Other observers said the videos showed the plane was suffering from suspected engine trouble but the landing gear malfunction was likely a direct reason for the crash. They said there wouldn’t likely be a link between the landing gear problem and the suspected engine issue.
Earlier Monday, another Boeing 737-800 plane operated by Jeju Air returned to Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport shortly after takeoff when the pilot detected a landing gear issue. Song Kyung-hoon, a Jeju Air executive, said the issue was resolved through communication with a land-based equipment center, but the pilot decided to return to Gimpo as a precautionary measure.
Joo said officials were reviewing whether there might have been communication problems between air traffic controllers and the pilot. “Our current understanding is that, at some point during the go-around process, communication became somewhat ineffective or was interrupted, ahead of the landing and impact,” he said.
Ministry officials said Monday the plane’s flight data and cockpit audio recorders were moved to a research center at Gimpo airport ahead of their analysis. Ministry officials earlier said it would take months to complete the investigation of the crash.
The Muan crash is South Korea’s deadliest aviation disaster since 1997, when a Korean Airlines plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.
The crash left many South Koreans shocked and ashamed, with the government announcing a seven-day national mourning period through Jan. 4. Some questioned whether the crash involved safety or regulatory issues, such as a 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul that killed 160 people and a 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people.
The Transport Ministry said authorities have identified 146 bodies and are collecting DNA and fingerprint samples from the other 33.
Park Han Shin, a representative of the bereaved families, said they were told that the bodies were so badly damaged that officials need time before returning them to their families.
“I demand that the government mobilize more personnel to return our brothers and family members as intact as possible more swiftly,” he said, choking down tears.
The crash was yet more major news for South Koreans already reeling from a political crisis set off by Yoon’s martial law decree, which brought hundreds of troops into Seoul streets and revived traumatic memories of past military rule in the 1970-80s.
The political tumult resulted in the opposition-controlled National Assembly impeaching Yoon and Han. The safety minister stepped down and the police chief was arrested over their roles in the martial law inforcement.
The absence of top officials responsible for managing disasters has led to concerns.
“We are deeply worried whether the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters really can handle the disaster,” the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial Monday.
South Korea orders inspections of all Boeing 737-800 jetliners like the one that crashed, killing 179
Seoul, South Korea — South Korean officials said Monday they will conduct safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country's airlines, as they struggle to determine the cause of a plane crash that killed 179 people a day earlier.
Sunday's crash, the country's worst aviation disaster in decades, triggered an outpouring of national sympathy.
Many people worry how effectively the South Korean government will handle the disaster as it grapples with a leadership vacuum following the recent successive impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister and acting President Han Duck-soo, the country's top two officials, amid political tumult caused by Yoon's brief imposition of martial law earlier this month.
New acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday presided over a task force meeting on the crash and instructed authorities to conduct an emergency review of the country's aircraft operation systems.
"The essence of a responsible response would be renovating the aviation safety systems on the whole to prevent recurrences of similar incidents and building a safer Republic of South Korea," said Choi, who is also deputy prime minister and finance minister.
The Boeing 737-800 plane operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air aborted its first landing attempt for reasons that aren't immediately clear. Then, during its second landing attempt, it received a bird strike warning from the ground control center before its pilot issued a distress signal. The plane landed without its front landing gear deployed, overshot the runway, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into a fireball.
Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines and now a consultant, said the Boeing 737-800 is a "proven airplane" that belongs to a different class of aircraft than the Boeing 737 Max jetliner that was linked to fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.
But South Korea's Transport Ministry said Monday it plans to conduct safety inspections of all of the 101 Boeing 737-800 jetliners operated by the country's airlines as well as a broader review into safety standards at Jeju Air, which operates 39 of those planes. Senior ministry official Joo Jong-wan said representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing were expected to arrive in South Korea on Monday to participate in the investigation.
Ministry officials also said they will look into whether the Muan airport's localizer - a concrete fence housing a set of antennas designed to guide aircraft safely during landings - should have been made with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact.
Joo said the ministry has determined that similar concrete structures are in other domestic airports, including in Jeju Island and the southern cities of Yeosu and Pohang, as well as airports in the United States, Spain and South Africa.
Video of the crash indicated that the pilots didn't deploy flaps or slats to slow the aircraft, suggesting a possible hydraulic failure, and didn;t manually lower the landing gear, suggesting they didn't have time, said John Cox, a retired airline pilot and CEO of Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Despite that, the jetliner was under control and traveling in a straight line, and damage and injuries likely would have been minimized if not for the barrier being so close to the runway, Cox said.
Other observers said the videos showed the plane was suffering from suspected engine trouble but the landing gear malfunction was likely a direct reason for the crash. They said there wouldn't likely be a link between the landing gear problem and the suspected engine issue.
Earlier Monday, another Boeing 737-800 plane operated by Jeju Air returned to Seoul's Gimpo International Airport shortly after takeoff when the pilot detected a landing gear issue. Song Kyung-hoon, a Jeju Air executive, said the issue was resolved through communication with a land-based equipment center, but the pilot decided to return to Gimpo as a precautionary measure.
Local media reported that 21 passengers opted not to board an alternate flight to Jeju due to concern over safety and other reasons, Agence France-Presse reports.
Ministry officials said Monday the crashed plane's flight data and cockpit audio recorders were moved to a research center at Gimpo airport ahead of their analysis. Ministry officials earlier said it would take months to complete the investigation of the crash.
The Muan crash is South Korea's deadliest aviation disaster since 1997, when a Korean Airlines plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.
The crash left many South Koreans shocked and ashamed, with the government announcing a seven-day national mourning period through Jan. 4. Some questioned whether the crash involved safety or regulatory issues, such as a 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul that killed 160 people and a 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people.
The Transport Ministry said authorities have identified 146 bodies and are collecting DNA and fingerprint samples from the other 33.
Park Han Shin, a representative of the bereaved families, said they were told that the bodies were so badly damaged that officials need time before returning them to their families.
"I demand that the government mobilize more personnel to return our brothers and family members as intact as possible more swiftly," he said, choking down tears.
The crash was yet more major news for South Koreans already reeling from a political crisis set off by Yoon's martial law decree, which brought hundreds of troops into Seoul streets and revived traumatic memories of past military rule in the 1970-80s.
The political tumult resulted in the opposition-controlled National Assembly impeaching Yoon and Han. The safety minister stepped down and the police chief was arrested over their roles in the martial law inforcement.
The absence of top officials responsible for managing disasters has led to concerns.
"We are deeply worried whether the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters really can handle the disaster," the mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial Monday.
