Nearly all of the 181 people on board are presumed dead, officials said.
A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people veered off the runway during landing gear malfunction and crashed into a fence in South Korea. There are only two survivors, while everyone else on board is presumed to have been killed, national broadcaster Yonhap reported, citing firefighters. The authorities previously placed the preliminary death toll at 85.
The disaster occurred shortly after 9 am local time when a Jeju Air Flight 2216 was landing at the Muan International Airport in the southwestern part of the country. The plane was returning to South Korea from Bangkok.
A video posted to social media shows the large plane skidding off a runway and bursting into flames.
According to local media, the authorities believe that the plane was likely hit by a flock of birds, which caused its landing gear to malfunction.
The Korea Herald cited officials as saying that the plane crashed during its second attempt to land on the runway. After circling around the airport, the airliner attempted an emergency belly landing, which means landing the aircraft without the landing gear fully extended.
BREAKING: New video shows moment Boeing 737-800 plane carrying 181 people onboard crashes at Muan International Airport in South Korea.
pic.twitter.com/konxWBpnWy— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) December 29, 2024
The aircraft has broken into pieces, with thick plumes of smoke rising from the crash site. The firefighters are working to extinguish the flames and looking for survivors from the tail section. One passenger and one crew member have been rescued so far, according to Yonhap.
The plane had 175 passengers and six crew members on board. Of the passengers, 173 are South Korean nationals, and two have Thai passports.
Diversity is strength
I watched the film of this, a terrible tragedy. It appears to me that the pilot kept the engines going at full thrust because it did not appear to slow down at all, in fact it looked like it was almost gliding just above the runway. If the pilots had put the thrust to idle, the friction of the fuselage and engines on the runway would have brought the aircraft to rest. Also, the reports say the aircraft smashed into a fence. However, it looked like it was moving and then completely stopped as if it smashed into a pile of soil (a mound) at the end of the runway.
If the aircraft had a manual cranking mechanism to get the undercarriage down when the hydraulics fail, then why did they not do a “go around” and try a few things, perhaps even gently rolling side to side and bouncing the aircraft in the air (letting gravity do its job) which has worked a few times in other situations.
I cannot help but wonder if this failure may have been amplified into a disaster by pilots who rely too much on automation. Years ago, there was an aircraft coming into to San Francisco in daylight, clear visibility and no wind. The pilots landed heavy and ripped the tail section off the aircraft: They were used to landing on autopilot and could not affect a simple landing when the autopilot was off.
Contrast this with pilots who have lots of experience and / or are ex-Military and can turn a potential disaster into a triumph: The aircraft that landed on the river in New York a few years ago, the countless aircraft that have glided to a safe landing when they have run out of fuel, the pilots who can “crab” the aircraft like a glider to bleed off speed in order to affect a safe landing.
These are just my opinions based upon the short video.
Couple of question marks in my mind. Seems to have been a major miscalcation or error in that the plane did not appear to slow down or runway was too short. I’ve seen video of other big jets landing without wheels and they came to a halt. In this situation why not ditch it in the sea, and do a “Capt sully”? Maybe the weather?