At least 85 killed in passenger plane crash in S. Korea

A passenger jet carrying 181 people erupted in flames after going off the runway and hitting a wall at an airport in South Korea’s southwestern county of Muan on Sunday, likely leaving all but two dead, authorities said.

The authorities confirmed 85 deaths from the accident so far.

The accident happened when the Jeju Air flight veered off the runway while landing and collided with a fence wall at Muan International Airport in the Muan county, South Jeolla Province, about 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Except the two rescued from the accident, all the missing people are presumed to have been killed, firefighting authorities said, adding that they were switching to search operations to recover bodies.
A total of 181, including six crew members, were aboard the plane that was returning from Bangkok.

Most of the passengers were Koreans, except for two Thai nationals.

Videos aired by local TV stations show the plane attempting to land without its landing gear deployed. The plane skidded along the ground, crashing into a concrete wall before exploding and being engulfed in flames.

The plane was almost completely destroyed by the explosion.

Officials believe the landing gear failure, possibly due to a bird strike, may have caused the accident. They began an on-site investigation to determine the exact cause.