Horrific footage of South Korea plane crash: The miracle of how two people survived
A passenger on a doomed flight frantically texted a relative moments before it burst into flames, killing 179 people on-board.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
There are miraculously two survivors in the horrific South Korean plane crash that basically obliterated the aircraft and left 179 people confirmed dead.
All passengers and four staff were killed in a mass casualty event after a passenger jet carrying 181 people crashed at Muan airport in South Korea. Two flight crew members survived.
One of the survivors - a 33-year-old flight attendant - told doctors he had already been rescued when he woke up, according to news agency Yonhap, citing hospital director Ju Woong.
He was first taken to a hospital in Mokpo, about 25km south of the airport, but was later transferred to Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital in the capital.
“He’s fully able to communicate,” Ju said. “There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such.”
The survivor, who suffered multiple fractures, is receiving special care due to the risk of after-effects, including total paralysis, the news agency added.
The Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 was carrying 175 passengers - aged from three to 78-years-old - andsix crew when the Boeing 737-800 crashed upon landing just after 9am local time on Sunday (11am AEDT).
Horrific footage of the crash showed the plane sliding on its belly at high speed and veering off the edge of the runway before hitting an embankment and bursting into flames.
It has since emerged that a passenger aboard the doomed flight texted a relative with a final message moments before the plane exploded.
The person wrote that a bird was stuck in the plane’s wing, according to News1 agency.
“Should I say my last words?” the passenger texted their relative, according to the outlet.
Emergency responders have confirmed 179 people died on the plane.
But despite the South Jeolla Fire Service telling CNN that the plane was “almost completely destroyed” by flames, two people, still alive, were recovered from the wreckage.
The survivors are believed to be a woman and a man, and are both part of the plane’s crew.
They were found in the tail section of plane, which emergency responders said was the only part of the plane that remained somewhat intact.
The plane was returning to South Korea from Bangkok, Thailand and most of the passengers are believed to be Koreans, except for two Thai nationals.
The Korean family members of those on the plane assembled at the airport desperately awaiting news before fficials earlier out the names of the confirmed dead to them in scenes described as “heartbreaking” by CNN.
“We need to confirm whether they are dead or alive.” a woman reportedly shouted in one news broadcast. “Only then can we figure out which hospital to go to.”
Relatives have been reported yelling at officials demanding more information.
The crash was initially believed to have been caused by “contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear” as the plane attempted to land at the airport in the country’s southwest, Yonhap reported.
Just a minute after the plane was warned about birds being in the area as it attempted to land, its pilot made a desperate mayday call to the control tower.
Experts left baffled by one detail
Crash investigators are now facing the agonising task of combing through the charred wreckage to find out how the bizarre crash - the deadliest air disaster of 2024 - could have happened.
Questions are now being asked however over the initial version of events - that a “bird strike” somehow crippled the plane’s landing gear on approach to Muan, The Sun reports.
Footage shows the plane appeared to be hit by a bird - or object - while flying over head and South Korean media reports one of the few survivors said there was an “explosion” after the impact.
Damage to the engine could impact the plane’s hydraulics which would impact the landing gear - but why the aircraft then descended so rapidly and made its fatal skidding landing has baffled experts.
Julian Bray, an aviation expert & major incident consultant, told The Sun the crash was “confusing”.
He said: “We need to put together the process second-by-second, find out which controls were working - which failed and only then can you come to a proper conclusion.”
The expert added he questioned how much control the pilot had of the plane - as despite hitting the ground with no landing gear at a rapid speed the pilot managed keep the plane “level”.
Gregory Alegi, an aviation expert and former teacher at Italy’s air force academy, said: “At this point there are a lot more questions than we have answers.
“Why was the plane going so fast? Why were the flaps not open? Why was the landing gear not down?”
Christian Beckert, a flight safety expert and Lufthansa pilot, said the video footage suggested that aside from the reversers, most of the plane’s braking systems were not activated, creating a “big problem” and a fast landing.
Beckert said a bird strike was unlikely to have damaged the landing gear while it was still up, and that if it had happened when it was down, it would have been hard to raise again.
“It’s really, really very rare and very unusual not to lower the gear, because there are independent systems where we can lower the gear with an alternate system,” he said.
A photo showed the tail section of the jet engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby.
Two people were rescued from the plane, according to the fire department.
Rescue workers were focusing on reaching people inside the tail section of the aircraft.
The initial fire has been extinguished and now official search and rescue operations are under way at the crash site.
An on-site investigation has been initiated to determine the exact cause of the disaster.
All flights to Muan International Airport have been cancelled, according to the Korea Airports Corporation.
The disaster has occurred just two days into Choi Sang-mok was made acting president of South Korea in the latest chapter of a string of political chaos in the country.
Sang-mok has instructed emergency responders to mobilise “all available” equipment and personnel to respond to the crash.
Jeju Air CEO Kim Lee-bae issued a public statement on the carrier’s website.
“First of all, I would like to bow my head and apologise to all those who have supported Jeju Air,” the statement, which has been translated from Korean to English, read.
“At approximately 9:03 AM on December 29, a fire broke out on Bangkok-Muan Flight 7C2216 at Muan International Airport while landing.
“Above all, I would like to express my deepest condolences and apologies to the passengers and their families who lost their lives in the accident.
“As of now, it is difficult to determine the cause of the accident, and we must wait for the official investigation announcement from the relevant government agencies.
“Regardless of the cause of the accident, I feel responsible as the CEO.
“Jeju Air will do everything it can to quickly recover from the accident and support the families of the passengers.
“We will also do our best to determine the cause of the accident together with the government.
“Once again, I pray for the souls of those who lost their lives in the accident and offer my deepest apologies to the bereaved families.”
The horrific news comes just days after 38 people were killed on a Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day.
The jet was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, to Grozny in Chechnya, Russia, when it diverted from its route and tried to make an emergency landing near Aktau, in Kazakhstan’s southwest.
As it landed, it broke apart and erupted in flames.
Of the 67 people on board, 38 were killed and 29 survived, many with serious injuries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has since apologised for the crash and though he stopped short of accepting that it might have been hit by Russian fire, he did admit that Russian air defences were at work when the passenger plane tried to land.
The Kremlin said Putin apologised to Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev over the “tragic incident” in a phone call, but did not say Russian air defence shot the plane.
–With AFP and The Sun
More Coverage
Originally published as Horrific footage of South Korea plane crash: The miracle of how two people survived
Two survive South Korea horror plane crash
Only two people have survived the South Korea plane crash as the Jeju Air crash killed everyone else on-board and eye witnesses describe what they saw.
Read more
What we know about the South Korea plane crash
A Jeju Air plane flying from Bangkok to South Korea with 181 people on board crashed in the worst ever aviation disaster on South Korean soil. Here’s what we know so far.
Read more