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A South Korean passenger plane crashed and burst into flames while landing on Sunday, killing at least 80 people, local authorities said, in one of the country’s worst-ever aviation disasters.
The Jeju Air flight with 181 people on board failed to deploy its landing gear at Muan International Airport in the south of the country as it returned from Bangkok.
According to the Ministry of Transport, of the 175 passengers on board, 173 were Koreans and the remaining two were Thais. There were six other crew members on board.
Local television news footage showed the plane skidding down the runway before hitting a wall and being engulfed in flames. The plane’s landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned, according to the country’s emergency office.
The fire was brought under control and two people were rescued from the wreckage, state-run Yonhap news agency reported. More than 30 trucks and several helicopters were deployed to the disaster site.
Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok inspected the scene on Sunday and ordered an all-out rescue effort, imploring emergency personnel to “make every effort to carry out rescue operations and mobilize all available resources.”
An airline spokesman said authorities were still working to determine the exact cause of the crash.
Television footage showed thick smoke billowing from the wreckage of the twin-engine Boeing 737-800 jet after the crash.
Fire officials told Yonhap news agency that most of the passengers were likely dead. In a televised briefing, officials cited bird strikes and bad weather as possible causes.
The disaster was the second fatal aircraft accident in recent days. An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after diverting from Grozny in Russia’s southern Chechen republic over the Caspian Sea.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials blamed Russian anti-aircraft fire for the crash, which killed 38 of the 67 people on board. Russian authorities said heavy fog and a flock of birds diverted the plane from Grozny, but also said Ukrainian fighter jets were attacking nearby cities when the incident occurred.
Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijan on Saturday for the “tragic incident” but did not comment on accusations of Russian interference.
