A passenger aircraft burst into flames Sunday morning after it skid off a runway at a South Korean airport and slammed right into a concrete fence when its entrance touchdown gear apparently didn’t deploy, killing at the least 85 folks, officers mentioned, in one of many nation’s worst aviation disasters.
The Nationwide Hearth Company mentioned rescuers raced to drag folks from the Jeju Air passenger aircraft carrying 181 folks on the airport within the city of Muan, about 180 miles south of Seoul. The Transport Ministry recognized the aircraft as a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet and mentioned the crash occurred at 9:03 a.m. native time. The aircraft was getting back from Bangkok.
At the least 85 folks — 46 girls and 39 males — died within the fireplace, the company mentioned. Emergency employees pulled out two folks, each crew members, and native well being officers mentioned they continue to be aware. It mentioned it deployed 32 fireplace vehicles and a number of other helicopters to comprise the hearth.
Yonhap by way of REUTERS
South Korean information company Yonhap reported that there have been believed to be 173 South Korean passengers aboard the flight and two Thai nationals. There have been additionally six crew members aboard the flight, Reuters reported.
Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fireplace station, advised a televised briefing that rescue employees are persevering with to seek for our bodies scattered by the crash affect. The aircraft was utterly destroyed, with solely the tail meeting remaining recognizable among the many wreckage, he mentioned.
Footage of the crash aired by YTN tv confirmed the Jeju Air aircraft skidding throughout the airstrip, apparently with its touchdown gear nonetheless closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the ability. Native TV stations aired footage displaying thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the aircraft engulfed with flame.
Staff had been wanting into numerous potentialities about what prompted the crash, together with whether or not the plane was struck by birds that prompted mechanical issues, Lee mentioned. Senior Transport Ministry official Joo Jong-wan individually advised reporters that authorities investigators arrived on the website to analyze the reason for the crash and fireplace.
Kim Hong-Ji / REUTERS
Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed deep condolences to the households of these affected by the accident by means of a social media submit. Paetongtarn mentioned she had ordered the Ministry of International Affairs to supply help instantly.
Performing South Korean President Choi Sang-mok ordered an all-out rescue response, Reuters reported. Choi solely grew to become performing president Friday, changing the earlier performing president, Han Duck-soo, following Han’s impeachment. All of it comes within the wake of the federal government disaster brought on by the Dec. 3 martial legislation declaration from former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was later impeached as nicely.
This is likely one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation historical past. The final time South Korea suffered a large-scale air catastrophe was in 1997, when an Korean Airline aircraft crashed in Guam, killing 228 folks on board.
This comes after 38 folks had been killed and 29 extra injured when an Azerbaijan Airways aircraft sure from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian metropolis of Grozny crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an apology for the crash, and the Kremlin mentioned in a press release that air protection programs had been firing close to Grozny airport because the airliner “repeatedly” tried to land there. It didn’t, although, explicitly say considered one of these hit the aircraft.
A U.S. official advised CBS Information there have been early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system could have struck the aircraft in a area the place Ukrainian and Russian forces have traded drone and rocket fireplace for months.
