More than 170 people were killed when a passenger jet burst into flames after crash-landing and skidding off the runway at a South Korean airport, in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.
The Jeju Air passenger plane’s landing gear apparently did not deploy as the pilot tried to land the aircraft at Muan International Airport on Sunday, South Korea’s national fire agency said. The plane was unable to stop and slammed into a concrete barrier, according to authorities.
Most of the 181 people on board died, the fire agency said.
South Korea’s Transport Ministry said the plane was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet that was traveling from Bangkok and that the crash happened at just after 9 a.m. local time.
Emergency workers pulled two people, both crew members, to safety, authorities said. Health officials said they are conscious and not in life-threatening condition.
The pilot issued a mayday emergency call minutes before landing after the plane suffered a bird strike, officials said. The aircraft aborted a first landing attempt and then touched down without its landing gear deployed, sliding down the runway at high speed before hitting a wall at the end of the strip and exploding into flames.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “heartbroken to see images of the plane crash in Muan,” conveying her “deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the Republic of Korea as a whole” in a post on X.
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