Por Choe Sang-Hun, John Yoon and Jin Yu Young, de Seul
A passenger plane with 181 people on board it skidded across the track at high speed and crashed into a wall before bursting into flames. Two crew members were rescued alive from the tail of the burning planebut over the next few hours on Sunday (29), grim news began to reach anxious family members at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea.
By the end of Sunday, the death of the making the plane crash — operated by the popular low-cost airline Jeju Water — the worst aviation disaster involving a South Korean company in almost three decades and the worst ever recorded on South Korean soil.
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Sunday’s accident was the deadliest in the world in the last six yearssince Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 people on board died when the plane plunged into the Java Sea, according to reports from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.
Authorities are investigating what caused the Jeju Air flight to crash-land, including the chances that the landing gear failed and the plane was struck by birds.
As speculation mounted over the cause of the crash, hundreds of passengers’ families endured the painful wait for news of their loved ones returning from a trip abroad. Wails and screams filled Muan airport on Sunday afternoon. A young woman comforted an older woman who was crying for her son. Two women in tears hugged each other.
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Until Sunday night, 65 of the dead had been identified through fingerprints and other methods, authorities said. A dozen bodies were so badly damaged that officials could not immediately identify their gender. Among those identified were a 23-year-old flight attendant and a 78-year-old male passenger.
Jang Gu-ho, 68, sat in the arrivals hall next to his wife with tears in his eyes, after running from his home in the nearby city of Mokpo. He said that five of his relatives were on the plane returning from vacation: his wife’s sister, his daughter, his son-in-law and two grandchildren. “We are stunned,” he said.
In a restricted area of the airport, authorities worked to identify the bodies they recovered from the crash site. When officials posted the names of those confirmed dead on the walls of the arrivals hall, people rushed to check the lists.
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The disaster left South Korea in shock at a time when the country was dealing with a political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s unfortunate and brief declaration of martial law and his subsequent impeachment this month. Vice Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, an unelected official, rushed to the scene to deal with his on Friday.
The plane crash was especially shocking for the country because there had not been a major aviation disaster following a series of deadly plane crashes in the 1990s and earlier. In the last major aviation accident involving a South Korean airline, a Korean Air jet crashed into a hill in Guam, a US territory in the western Pacific, in 1997, killing 229 of the 254 people on board.
This was the first fatal accident in Jeju Watercreated in 2005 and which flies to dozens of countries in Asia. . He said the exact cause was uncertain.
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The plane, Jeju Air flight 7C2216, a Boeing 737-800, had taken off from Bangkok with 175 passengers and 6 crew. All passengers were South Koreans, except for two Thai citizens. The jet was landing in Muan, southwest of South Korea, when it ran into trouble.
Footage of the accident showed a white and orange plane speeding down the runway on its belly until collide with a barrier at the end of the track, exploding into a ball of fire. Local media cited witnesses describing the sound of the explosion and published photographs of large clouds of black smoke over the scene.
The plane broke into so many parts that only its tail was immediately identifiablesaid Lee Jeong-hyeon, an official in charge of search and rescue operations at the site. The two surviving crew members were rescued from the tail section. “We can’t recognize the rest of the fuselage,” Lee said.
As the death toll rose, details of what happened in the final moments before the crash began to emerge.
As the plane prepared to land, the airport warned pilots about a possible impact with birdssaid Ju Jong-wan, director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. At that moment, witnesses heard loud sounds similar to explosionsMBC-TV reported. The channel broadcast images showing flames coming from one of the plane’s engines.
The plane issued a “mayday” alert shortly after the airport’s warning, and then crash-landed, Ju said.
The mudflats near Muan and much of the west coast of the Korean Peninsula are favorite resting spots for migratory birds. Photographs in local media showed flocks of birds flying near the airport on Sunday.
Evidence suggested the aircraft encountered a flock of birds during its approach, leading to suspected “bird ingestion” by the engines, said Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University in England.
The damage may have caused a hydraulic system failurewhich could explain the inability to deploy the landing gear, Chan said in an emailed analysis from the university.
The plane also did not appear to have activated its flaps like thatsaid Keith Tonkin, managing director of Aviation Projects, a consultancy firm in Brisbane, Australia, which reviewed video of the crash. That meant he was traveling faster than his normal landing speed when he landed face down on the runway, he said.
Aviation experts said investigations into the causes of crashes could take years.
At Muan airport, as officials informed the crowd that they had confirmed the identities of some of the people and announced their names, some began to cry. Others became angry and raised their voices in frustration: “Speak louder!” “Print the names!”
Several hours after the accident, people expressed frustration at having to wait so long for news about their relatives. “Let us have the list so we can at least find a hospital,” one woman shouted.
People crowded around an officer to check whether their relatives were on a list of those confirmed dead. Some relatives gave DNA samples to officials at the airport to help identify the bodies.
In the departures hall, temporary tents were set up on Sunday night for the families of the plane’s passengers and crew. Outside the airport, cars lined up to enter the crowded parking lots. Some parked on the sides of the roads leading to the terminal, and people continued to enter the airport throughout the night.
Six hours after rushing to the airport, Jang and his wife were still waiting for their relatives to be identified. “It’s going to be a long night,” he said.
