South Korea Jeju Plane Crash Kills Atleast 179 People

A plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea has killed 179 people on Sunday, 29th of December, 2024. Two survivors, both flight crew members, managed to escape what could be the worst aviation accident in the country.

The Boeing 737-800 flight, operated by Jeju Air, had 181 people on board, including six crew members, and was arriving from Bangkok, Thailand.

The passenger plane skidded off a runway at a South Korean airport, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into flames after its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy.

Here’s what we know so far about what could be the country’s worst aviation accident:

A plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea has left 179 people dead. Four crew members and all 175 passengers were killed.

According to Yonhap news agency, there are two survivors, both members of the flight crew, and one of them has been talking to doctors.

The Boeing 737-800, operated by Korean airline Jeju Air, was arriving from Bangkok, Thailand, when it crashed at about 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT)

Most passengers were South Koreans, apart from two Thai nationals

Footage shows the plane landing without its wheels, skidding along the runway and crashing into a wall, triggering a fiery explosion.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation, and it could take up to a month to decode the flight data as it was damaged.

A government official said air traffic control had issued a bird strike warning, delaying the landing. Two minutes later, the pilot issued a Mayday call and was cleared to land from the opposite direction.

The Flight’s Black Box

Officials had recovered both “black boxes”, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage.

According to Yonhap, the flight data recorder is partially affected, but the voice recorder appears to be intact.

An investigator told the news agency it could take up to a month to decode because of the damage.