Two people survived and 179 were confirmed killed in a plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea on Sunday. The Jeju Air Flight 2216, a Boeing 787-800, skidded off the runway while landing, bursting into flames after crashing. The airport is located 180 miles south of Seoul and was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members.
The plane took off from Bangkok, Thailand, shortly after 2 a.m. local time and was carrying most of its passengers and crew from Korea, with at least two from Thailand. The pilot declared a mayday alert after a bird strike warning, and the plane was instructed to land on a different runway.
However, the pilots failed to lower the landing gear and struck a safety system called a localizer, and the plane crashed into a wall. The crash occurred at around 9:03 a.m. local time, and firefighters put out the initial blaze at 9:46 a.m.
The national fire agency confirmed the deaths of 179 people, making it the deadliest airline disaster of the year and the first fatal accident in the history of the low-cost airline. Among the dead, at least 84 were women and 82 were men. Two crew members were rescued with moderate injuries.
The investigation is ongoing, and officials have retrieved both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. The full investigation is expected to take between six months and three years.
The airline extended its apologies to the families of the victims and said it would provide support. The South Korean government also deployed emergency responders and declared the crash site a special disaster zone.
