By Chole Sang-Hun, John Yoon and Jin Yu Young
The aircraft carrying 181 individuals slid rapidly on the runway and crashed into a barrier, igniting a massive fire.
Two crew members were saved alive from the rear of the aflame aircraft, though in the following hours on Sunday, tragic updates started to reach worried families at Muan International Airport, situated in southwestern South Korea.
By the end of Sunday, all 179 other passengers had been confirmed deceased, transforming the crash of the Jeju Air-operated aircraft into the most catastrophic air incident involving a South Korean airline in almost thirty years and the worst-ever on the nation’s land.
Authorities are probing into the reasons behind the aircraft’s emergency landing, including the malfunction of the landing gear and the possibility of a bird strike.
Amid rising speculation concerning the accident’s cause, hundreds of family members of the passengers faced the agonizing wait for updates on their relatives returning from abroad. The Muan airport was filled with cries and sobs on Sunday afternoon. A young woman consoled an older woman distraught over her son, while two other weeping women held each other tightly.
By Sunday evening, officials reported that only 65 of the deceased could be identified via fingerprints and other methods. A dozen bodies were so severely damaged that determining their gender was not immediately possible. Among those identified was a 23-year-old flight attendant and a 78-year-old male traveler.
Jang Gu-ho, aged 68, remained composed in the arrivals area alongside his tearful spouse after hastily arriving from his home in Mokpo. He indicated that five of his relatives were on the flight returning from a holiday: his wife’s sister, her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandkids.
“We’re in utter shock,” he stated.
In a secluded area of the airport, officials worked diligently to identify the remains retrieved from the crash site. When the names of the confirmed dead were posted on the walls of the arrivals hall, attendees hurried to inspect the lists.
The tragedy left South Korea in disbelief during a period when the nation was already contending with a political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated and brief declaration of martial law, coupled with his impeachment earlier this month. Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, who is not an elected official, hurried to the location to tackle his most significant challenge since assuming the role of acting president on Friday.
The plane crash was particularly startling for the nation, which had avoided significant aviation tragedies following a series of deadly flights in the 1990s and prior. The last major air disaster involving a South Korean airline occurred in 1997 when a Korean Air jet collided with a hillside in Guam, resulting in the deaths of 229 of the 254 individuals on board.
The Sunday incident involving the Jeju Air flight was likely the deadliest globally since Lion Air Flight 610 went down in 2018, claiming all 189 lives onboard as it plunged into the Java Sea.
This also seemed to be the first fatal incident for Jeju Air, which was founded in 2005 and operates routes to numerous countries across Asia. Kim E-bae, the CEO of Jeju Air, bowed his head as he publicly expressed remorse for the tragedy. He noted that the precise cause of the crash remains unknown.
The aircraft, Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800, had departed from Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew members. All of the passengers were South Korean, aside from two Thai nationals. The plane encountered difficulties while landing at Muan in southwestern South Korea.
Video footage of the incident depicted a white-and-orange aircraft racing down the runway on its belly before crashing into a barrier at the runway’s conclusion, erupting into a fireball. Local news outlets reported witness accounts detailing the explosion’s sound and showcased images of large smoke plumes rising from the scene.
The plane had fragmented into numerous pieces, with only the tail being immediately recognizable, as reported by Lee Jeong-hyeon, an official overseeing search and rescue operations at the scene. The two surviving crew members had been extracted from the tail section.
“The rest of the fuselage was unrecognizable,” Lee remarked.
As the death count rose, details regarding the final moments leading up to the crash started to surface.
Prior to the aircraft’s landing, the airport alerted the pilots concerning a possible bird strike, according to Ju Jong-wan, a director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. During this period, witnesses reportedly heard loud explosion-like noises, as per MBC-TV’s report. The channel broadcasted footage capturing flames briefly trailing from one of the engines.
Following the airport’s warning, the plane issued a mayday signal and subsequently crash-landed, Ju stated.
The muddy tidal flats bordering Muan and much of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula are known as popular resting spots for migratory birds. Local media photographs depicted flocks of birds flying in proximity to the airport on Sunday.
Evidence indicated that the aircraft likely encountered a flock of birds during its approach, raising suspicions of bird ingestion into the engines, explained Marco Chan, a senior lecturer of aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University in the U.K.
Such damage could have led to a failure in the hydraulic system, which might clarify the inability to deploy the landing gear, according to Chan’s analysis sent via email from his university.
Additionally, the aircraft seemingly did not activate its wing flaps, remarked Keith Tonkin, managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting firm based in Brisbane, Australia, who examined crash footage. This meant it was traveling faster than the typical landing speed upon its belly landing on the runway, he explained.
Aviation specialists noted that investigations into the factors contributing to crashes can span several years.
