A passenger plane with 181 people onboard has crashed in South Korea, killing at 23 passengers onboard, in initial estimates.
The passenger plane, operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air, which came from Bangkok and was carrying 181 people, was landing when it went off the runway.
The plane, operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air, was landing in Muan International Airport when it veered off the runway and caught fire, local fire department officials said.
Rescuers found 23 bodies and were transporting them to local hospitals, said Lee Seong-sil, a Muan Fire Department official. “We are trying to find more casualties,” he said.
Photos from the South Korean news agency Yonhap showed a tail section of the plane separated and engulfed in orange flames with black smoke billowing up. The plane appears to have hit a concrete wall, according to the photos.
The plane, operating as Jeju Air flight 7C2216 and flying from Bangkok to Muan, was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members when the accident happened, around 9 a.m.
The crash comes as South Korea has been dealing with a political crisis following an ill-fated bid early this month by President Yoon Suk Yeol to declare martial law for the first time in decades. Lawmakers voted on Dec. 14 to impeach Mr. Yoon.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, the acting president, on Sunday instructed his government to mobilize all equipment and personnel available to rescue as many people as possible, Mr. Choi’s office said.
This appears to be the first fatal crash for Jeju Air, a popular low-cost South Korean carrier that was established in 2005 and flies to dozens of countries in Asia. The airline could not immediately be reached for comment.
In 2021, the South Korean authorities investigated Jeju Air after one of its planes flew despite having a defect, according to reports in the domestic news media. A tip of one of its wings was damaged during a landing, but the crew failed to notice the damage and the plane took off again, the Korea Herald reported.
Two people from the plane have been rescued by fire officials, according to Lee Seong-sil, a Muan Fire Department official. Mr. Lee did not provide details. News1, a local news agency, said that one of the rescued people was a passenger and the other a crew member.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said it was trying to verify the number of casualties with its embassy in Seoul.
News1, a South Korean news agency, reported 28 people killed in the accident, with many others seriously injured. The local fire department could not be reached for comment. A bird strike appears to have made the plane’s landing gear malfunction, forcing it to crash-land, the news agency said, without citing sources.
A plane went off the runway at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, and caught fire on Sunday.Credit…Yonhap News Agency, via Reuters
