The greatest airline catastrophe in South Korea claims 179 lives in a fiery plane accident.

Rohit Baniwal, writer

Brief news

• A Jeju Air flight from Bangkok made a belly landing at Muan International Airport, resulting in a fireball and the deadliest air accident in South Korea’s history, claiming 179 lives.
• Two crew members survived and are receiving medical treatment; investigations are ongoing to determine causes, including potential bird strikes and landing gear failure.
• The incident has prompted condolences from officials and families, with Jeju Air pledging full cooperation in the investigation and support for victims’ families.

Detailed news

At Muan International Airport, an airplane made a belly landing and went off the end of the runway, erupting in a fireball as it slammed into a wall. This was the deadliest air accident that has ever occurred in South Korea, and it resulted in the deaths of 179 people.

According to the South Korean Ministry of Transport, Jeju Air aircraft 7C2216, which was coming from Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, with 175 passengers and six crew members on board, was attempting to land at the airport in the southern part of the country shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT).

Two members of the crew were able to survive and were currently receiving medical treatment for their injuries.

According to the announcement made by the Ministry of Transport, the most fatal air accident that occurred on South Korean soil was also the worst accident that involved a South Korean airline in almost thirty years.

It was captured on film by the local media that the twin-engine Boeing 737-800 was observed sliding down the runway without any apparent landing gear. This occurred before the aircraft collided with navigation equipment and a wall, resulting in an explosion of flames and broken debris.

“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognize,” said Lee Jung-hyun, the chief of the Muan fire department, at a news briefing.

According to Lee, the two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail area of the plane that was on fire. A statement made by the head of the local public health center said that they were receiving treatment at hospitals for injuries ranging from moderate to severe.

Lee stated that the investigators are looking at the possibility of bird strikes and meteorological conditions as potential contributors. Government officials at the airport were quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying that a strike of this nature could have caused the landing gear to malfunction.

The catastrophe was the deadliest for any South Korean airline since a crash that occurred near Guam in 1997 with Korean Air, which resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people, according to data from the Ministry of Transportation. The previous deadliest accident to occur on South Korean land was a collision involving Air China in 2002, which resulted in the deaths of 129 people.

The report of the bird strike and the manner in which the aircraft attempted to land, according to the experts, created more concerns than it did answers.

At the moment, there are a great deal more questions than there are answers that we can provide. What caused the plane to travel at such a rapid speed? What caused the flaps to remain closed? According to Gregory Alegi, an aviation expert and a former instructor at Italy’s air force academy, the question of why the landing gear was not folded down was posed.

In accordance with international aviation regulations, South Korea will be in charge of conducting a civil investigation into the incident, and the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, which is the country in which the plane was developed and constructed, will be automatically involved.

In a later statement, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that it was leading a team of United States investigators to assist South Korea’s aviation authorities. Additionally, Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration were involved in the proceedings.

It is my final words.
Several hours after the collision, members of the family gathered in the arrival area of the airport, with some of them crying and hugging each other while volunteers from the Red Cross distributed blankets.

According to the officials, a significant number of victims looked to be locals arriving back from vacations in the surrounding districts.

A medic gave the names of those who had been identified by their fingerprints, and family members yelled and wailed as they heard the news.

In order to request additional information from the authorities, one relative appeared in front of a microphone. As he spoke, he remarked, “I don’t know what’s going on because my older brother passed away.”

In addition to the authorities stating that a temporary morgue had been built, there was a queue of funeral trucks waiting outside to remove the deceased.

The control tower had issued a bird strike warning, and shortly after that, the pilots declared mayday and then attempted to land from the other direction that the plane had come in. This information was provided by an official from the Ministry of Transport.

A passenger sent a text message to a relative informing them that a bird was stuck in the wing, according to the News1 agency. One of the last messages that the individual sent was, “Should I say my last words?”

A video of the collision was shown and replayed by Jeon Je-young, who was 71 years old and the father of one of the women who was on board.

When Jeon watched the video of the disaster, he commented, “The plane appeared to be flying out of control.”

“It’s likely that the pilots had no other option but to carry it out. In the end, my daughter, who is just in her mid-40s, found herself in this situation. According to him, this is incomprehensible. “She was very close to arriving home.”

The 737-800, which was the Boeing model that was involved in the accident, is one of the most widely flown airliners in the world and has a typically excellent safety record. It was designed a significant amount of time before the MAX model that was implicated in a recent safety crisis at Boeing.

2009 was the year when the aircraft was produced, according to the Ministry of Transport.

In a message that was sent off via email, Boeing stated, “We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support these individuals.” We would like to express our most sincere sympathies to the families of those who have lost loved ones, and we continue to keep the passengers and crew in our thoughts.

According to the transport ministry, the two CFM56-7B26 engines were produced by CFM International, which is a joint venture between an American company called GE Aerospace and a French company called Safran.

The loss of Jeju Air flight 2216 has left us in a state of profound sorrow, according to a spokeswoman for CFM. We would like to express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who were on board.

Assault against the newly appointed interim president of the country

The Chief Executive Officer of Jeju Air, Kim E-bae, expressed his regret for the disaster and bowed profoundly at a televised briefing.

He stated that there was no history of incidents involving the aircraft, and there were no premature indications of a failure. According to Kim, the airline would fully assist with the investigation and will make providing support to the grieving its top priority.

According to Kerati Kijmanawat, president of Airports of Thailand, there were no abnormal conditions recorded when the aircraft took off from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.

According to the authorities in charge of transportation, there were two Thai nationals among the passengers, and the remaining individuals are thought to be South Koreans.

It was the first fatal flight for Jeju Air, a low-cost airline that was established in 2005 and is currently the third largest carrier in the country in terms of passenger counts, after Korean Air Lines 003490.KS and Asiana Airlines.

On December 8, Jeju Air began operating regular flights from Muan to Bangkok and other destinations in Asia. The tragedy occurred only three weeks after the airline began operation.

In recent years, Muan International Airport has been significantly busier, despite the fact that it is one of the smallest airports in South Korea. Following the mishap, Yonhap reported that all flights, both local and international, that were scheduled to depart from the airport were canceled.

South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok, who was appointed interim leader of the country on Friday in the midst of a continuing political crisis, arrived at the scene of the disaster and stated that the government was putting all of its efforts into dealing with the crash.

The Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub stated that there were two Thai women on board the jet. The ages of the women were 22 and 45.

After some time had passed, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs verified that both individuals were among those who had been killed. According to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassy in Seoul was engaging in coordination with the South Koreans and making arrangements for family members to fly from Thailand.

In a post on X, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed her sympathies to the families of those who had been killed or injured, and she stated that she had asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that assistance was provided.

Source : CNBC news