Seoul: The tragic Jeju air crash claimed 179 lives, while only two people were rescued. A Jeju flight from Bangkok to South Korea, with 181 onboard crash landed at the Muan International Airport in the country’s south on Sunday. According to reports, the control tower sent a warning of a bird strike during the first landing of the Boeing 737-800, operated by low-cost carrier Jeju Air.
The plane departed from Bangkok around 9:00 am (0000 GMT). Notably, moments later after the first warning, the pilot declared a “mayday” and made another landing attempt. In the footage of the incident, the pilot attempted a belly landing with the landing gear reportedly still retracted, reported AFP.
The plane skidded along the runway and crashed into the wall. Among the deceased were 175 passengers, including two Thai nationals and the rest were South Koreans, and four crew members. The two people rescued were flight attendants, reported the global news agency.
As per the initial investigation, bird strike and adverse weather conditions, could have caused the crash. Meanwhile ,officials dismissed reports that the accident took place due to the runway being too short. “The runway is 2,800 metres long, and similar-sized aircraft have been operating on it without issues,” officials said as quoted by AFP.
Notably, a bird strike can be dangerous to aircraft safety and jets as there can be a loss of power in aircraft if birds are sucked into the air intakes, as per the UN agency International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
After the Jeju plane crash, South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok, also declared Muan County a special disaster zone and visited the crash site to direct search operations. Sang-mok declared a national mourning period until January 4.
The two black boxes of the Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 have also been recovered.
