One hundred seventy-nine people are deceased after a plane carrying 181 passengers crashed off the runway and smashed into a wall at an airport.
Reportedly, the plane was returning from Bangkok, Thailand, when it was landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea on Sunday, December 29th.
Authorities are now indicating that all but two of the passengers are deceased. The search operation to find the passengers has now turned into a recovery effort for the bodies.
The Jeju Air plane, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, was captured on footage coming off the runway and crashing into a wall before bursting into flames.
Preliminary reports indicate that the plane’s front landing gear failed to deploy, and the aircraft was seen skidding across the airstrip with its landing gear retracted.
Reportedly, the pilot attempted a crash landing after a regular landing attempt failed.
Transport ministry officials have stated that their early assessment of communication records shows the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land and granted the pilot permission to land in a different area. The pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before the plane went off the runway and skidded across a buffer zone before hitting the wall, the officials said.
According to the report, the investigation into the cause of the South Korean plane crash may take years. The country’s land ministry stated in a briefing that the investigation could take up to three years.
