Major plane crash in South Korea killed at least 167 people

A Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crashed in South Korea. While landing at Muan International Airport, the plane skidded off the runway, hit a fence and exploded.

There were 181 people on board, the https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-plane-fire-68da9b0bd5196feed6e7d2db849f461a?taid=6770e658aee5c900012bc825&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitterreported.

At least 167 people - 79 men, 77 women and 11 people whose genders cannot be identified - have reportedly were killed. The death toll is expected to rise as the rest of the people on board are reported missing.

Emergency services have pulled out two people, both crew members, and local health officials said they remain conscious. The fire department deployed 32 fire vehicles and several helicopters to contain the fire. About 1,560 firefighters, police, military and other officials were also dispatched to the scene.

Footage of the crash, broadcasted by South Korean television channels, show the Jeju Air plane hurtling down the runway at high speed with its landing gear still down, skidding off the runway and colliding head-on with a concrete wall, causing an explosion. Other local television channels showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the burning plane.

The head of the Muan Fire Station, Lee Jong-heon, told a briefing that the plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail section visible in the wreckage. He added that experts were currently examining various possibilities as to what caused the crash, including whether the plane was hit by birds.

The country’s Ministry of Transport later said its early assessment of the communications showed that airport control had warned the plane of a bird strike shortly before it was due to land and had given the pilot permission to land in another area. The pilot had made a distress call shortly before the plane overshot the runway and skidded through the buffer zone before hitting a wall, officials said.

Transport Ministry official Joo Jeong-wan also said that workers had retrieved flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the plane’s black box, which would be examined by government experts investigating the cause of the crash and fire. He also said the runway at Muan airport would be closed until Jan. 1.

Emergency officials in Muan said the plane’s landing gear appeared to have failed.

It is noted that this is one of the deadliest disasters in the history of South Korean aviation.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on December 25, an Azerbaijan Airlines plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan. There were 69 people on board.

Head of the Defense Ministry's Defense Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said that the plane was shot down by a russian Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile system.