Video: Moment when plane with 181 onboard crashed at South Korea airport

Footage showed the plane skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall

A Jeju Air passenger plane with 181 people onboard burst into flames Sunday after it skid off a runway at an airport in South Korea's Muan. According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, all but two people reportedly survivded the crash.

 

According to the agency, the Jeju Air flight 7C2216 was carrying 175 passengers and six crew. The plane was returning from Bangkok and its passengers include two Thai nationals.

 

Videos shared by local news channels showed the plane skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the airport. 

 

BREAKING: Video shows crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 in South Korea. 181 people on board pic.twitter.com/9rQUC0Yxt8

— BNO News (@BNONews) December 29, 2024

       

According to Yonhap, firefighting authorities said that except the two rescued from the accident, all the missing people are presumed to have been killed.  South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok, who was named interim leader of the country after the previous acting president was impeached, has ordered an all-out rescue effort.

 

Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed condolences to the families of those affected. In a post on X, Paetongtarn said she had ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide assistance immediately.

 

South Korea's deadliest aviation disasters

 

The Jeju Air plane incident is among the deadliest disasters in South Korea's aviation history. In 1997, an Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.  (With agency inputs)