South Korea plane crash: 179 dead as plane carrying 181 passengers burst into flames after skidding off runway

A passenger plane caught fire on December 29 after skidding off a runway at a South Korean airport and crashing into a concrete fence, reportedly due to a failure of the front landing gear to deploy. Officials confirmed that 179 people were killed, marking one of the deadliest aviation disasters in the country's history.

The fire engulfed the aircraft carrying 181 people when it skidded off the runway just after landing and struck a barrier. The country’s emergency office said its landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned. 

The death toll is expected to rise further as the rest of the people aboard the plane remain missing about six hours after the incident.

At least 176 people — 83 women, 82 men and 11 others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable — died in the fire, as per a report by AP. Emergency workers pulled out two people, both crew members, from the wreckage. Local health officials said they remain conscious. The National Fire Agency said it deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire.

Footage of the crash aired by YTN television showed the Jeju Air plane skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the facility. The transport ministry said the incident happened at 9:03 am local time. 

The flight was returning from Thailand to South Korea's Muan International Airport. The plane was a Boeing 737-800 jet operated by Jeju Air, an airline spokesperson said.

Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, told a televised briefing that the plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail assembly remaining recognizable among the wreckage. Lee said that workers were looking into various possibilities about what caused the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds, Lee said. 

Transport Ministry officials said their early assessment of communication records show the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land and gave its pilot permission to land in a different area, AP reported. The pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before the plane went past the runway and skidded across a buffer zone before hitting the wall, the officials said.

Local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the plane engulfed with flame. Officials were ordered to employ all available resources to rescue the passengers and crew, according to emergency authorities.  

Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed deep condolences to the families of those affected by the accident in a post on X. Kerati Kijmanawat, the director of the Airports of Thailand, confirmed in a statement that Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 departed from Suvarnabhumi Airport with no reports of abnormal conditions with the aircraft or on the runway, as per AP report.

This is one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea's aviation history. The last major air disaster in the country occurred in 1997, when a Korean Airlines plane crashed in Guam, resulting in the deaths of 228 people aboard.