At least 120 dead in fiery South Korea airliner crash, two crew rescued

MUAN COUNTY, South Korea - At least 120 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, 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 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) 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 1 p.m., 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 were being treated at hospitals with medium to severe injuries, said the head of the local public health centre.

'MY LAST WORDS'

Hours after the crash, mortuary vehicles were lined up to take bodies away, and authorities said a temporary morgue had been established.

The crash site smelled of aviation fuel and blood, according to Reuters witnesses, and workers in protective suits and masks combed the area while soldiers searched through bushes.

Yonhap news agency cited a fire official as saying most of 175 passengers and six crew were presumed dead.

Authorities had worked to rescue people in the tail section, an airport official told Reuters shortly after the crash.

The crash is the worst by any South Korean airline since a 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed more than 200 people, according to transportation ministry data.

Investigators are looking into bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee said. Yonhap cited airport authorities as saying a bird strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction.

A passenger texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing, the News1 agency reported. The person's final message was, "Should I say my last words?"

The passengers included two Thai nationals and the rest are believed to be South Koreans, according to the transportation ministry.

The Boeing 737-800 jet, operated by Jeju Air, was manufactured in 2009, the transport ministry said.

JEJU AIR SAYS BEREAVED ARE TOP PRIORITY

Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologised for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing.

He said the cause of the crash was still unknown, that the aircraft had no record of accidents and there were no early signs of malfunction. The airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the bereaved its top priority, Kim said.

No abnormal conditions were reported when the aircraft left Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, said Kerati Kijmanawat, president of Airports of Thailand.

Founded in 2005, Jeju Air is a low-cost airline that operates international routes to Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines, in addition to numerous domestic flights.

Boeing said in a emailed statement, "We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them. We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew."

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

All domestic and international flights at Muan airport had been cancelled, Yonhap reported.

South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok, named interim leader of the country on Friday in an ongoing political crisis, arrived at the scene of the accident and said the government was putting all its resources into dealing with the crash.

Two Thai women were on the plane, aged 22 and 45, Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said, adding that details were still being verified.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra sent condolences to the families of the dead and injured in a post on X, saying she had instructed the foreign ministry to provide assistance.

The ministry said in a statement it was in touch with the South Korean authorities.

(Reporting by Hongji Kim and Ju-min Park in Muan, Hyunsu Yim, Cynthia Kim and Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Gram Slattery in Washington and Panu Wongcha-um and Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and William Mallard)