Jeju Air, the airline that operated the accident plane that left the runway and crashed into a fence after landing at Muan International Airportin the South Korean province of South Jeolla (southeast), reported that it will spare no effort to deal with the accident, which has left at least 124 dead.
“We are currently working to determine the exact cause and details of the situation. “The plane has been in operation for 15 years with no history of accidents,” said a company official, who noted that “they will spare no effort to deal with it.”
American aviation giant Boeing, manufacturer of the ship, said this Sunday that it is “in contact” with Jeju Airafter the plane, a Boeing 737-800suffered the fatal accident, although there are no reports that he had any problems.
“We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and are ready to support them”the company said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones, and our thoughts are with the passengers and crew,” the text added.
A total of 179 people would have lost their lives, with the exception of two people rescued, this Sunday after a plane left the runway and crashed into a fence, according to preliminary information from firefighters cited by the Yonhap agency.
The official death toll stands at 124, while authorities continue work in the area and check the status of the victimsalthough they have already pointed out that the majority would be “presumably dead” and the official number is expected to rise drastically in the coming hours.
The accident It occurred around 9:07 (00:07 GMT)when Jeju Air flight 7C2216, which had departed from Bangkok airport in Thailand on the morning of that day, was trying to land at Muan airport and collided with the fence.
The authorities have confirmed that A total of 181 people were traveling on board, including 6 crew members, 173 Korean passengers and 2 Thai passengers. and the fire service has managed to rescue two people.
Police and firefighters are investigating the exact cause of the accident, which they believe was caused by a failure to deploy the plane’s landing gear, possibly caused by a bird strike.
Airport authorities said the plane was attempting a forced landing due to landing gear malfunction when the accident occurred, after its first landing attempt failed.
However, the plane would not have been able to reduce speed until it reached the end of the runway, which caused the crash and the ship to start burning. Witnesses in the area indicated that some tires had not activated.
