Jeju Air crash: almost all presumed dead after South Korean aircraft veers off runway and hits wall
All but two of the 181 people aboard a plane that veered off a runway and hit a wall at an airport in South Korea are presumed to have died, fire authorities have said, according to Yonhap news agency. If confirmed, it would make it South Korea’s worst domestic civil aviation disaster.
Footage of the incident showed the Boeing 737-800 skid along the runway at Muan international airport on Sunday morning before striking what appeared to be a concrete barrier at high speed and bursting into flames as parts of the fuselage flew into the air.
A local fire official said the crash had likely been caused by a bird strike and weather conditions. The strike may have caused the landing gear to fail, Yonhap said. The flight had reportedly attempted one landing before being forced to “go around” when the landing gear failed to lower normally.
“The cause of the accident is presumed to be a bird strike combined with adverse weather conditions,” Lee Jeong-hyun, the chief of Muan fire station, told a media briefing. “However, the exact cause will be announced following a joint investigation.”
