One of the two survivors was a flight attendant on the Jeju Air plane that caught fire after crashing into a wall while making an emergency landing at Muan International Airport this morning
One of the two survivors of the accident that occurred this Sunday (29), told doctors: “When I woke up, I had already been rescued”, said the director of Ewha Womans University Hospital in Seoul, Ju Woong, who spoke at a press conference of press. The information comes from South Korea’s main news agency, Yonhap News Agency.
The survivor, aged 33 and surnamed Lee, was a flight attendant on the Jeju Air plane that caught fire after colliding with a wall while making an emergency landing at Muan International Airport this morning.
Ju stated that he did not ask about the details of the accident, because he believed that this would not help the patient’s recovery. “He is fully capable of communicating. So far, there are no indications of memory loss or anything similar,” said the doctor.
The survivor is currently being treated in the hospital’s intensive care unit after suffering fractures to his ribs, scapula and upper spine, according to the Associated Press news agency. Ju mentioned that he is under special care due to the possibility of sequelae, including total paralysis.
The other survivor of the accident is a 25-year-old flight attendant surnamed Koo. She is being treated at Asan Medical Center in eastern Seoul, according to the news agency. His condition is stable, although he suffered injuries to his ankle and head. Medical staff refused to answer reporters’ questions about his condition, according to Yonhap News Agency.
South Korea’s worst plane crash in decades
The plane was a Boeing carrying 181 people that crashed into a wall at Muan International Airport. The aircraft had taken off from Bangkok, Thailand, and was landing at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea when it crashed at around 9am local time. Authorities said the plane had broken into so many pieces that only the tail was identifiable.
This was the worst plane crash involving a South Korean airline since a Korean Air jet crashed into a hill in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific, in 1997. That crash killed 229 of the 254 people on board.
Authorities are investigating why the landing gear appeared to have failed to function properly and whether birds had struck the plane; or whether bad weather had been a factor, Ju Jong-wan, director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said at a news conference.
According to him, when the plane was landing, the airport warned about the possibility of a bird attack. The plane issued an emergency alert shortly thereafter, he said, and then made a forced landing.
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo and international agencies
Posted by Carolina Ferreira
