DIGIVESTASI - Local authorities have confirmed 179 fatalities following the crash of a passenger plane carrying 181 people at Muan International Airport, South Korea, on Sunday morning. Two crew members were rescued and transported to a hospital in Seoul after receiving initial treatment at a nearby medical facility.

The plane, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members when it crashed at around 9:00 a.m. local time. The aircraft veered off the runway during landing, struck a concrete wall, and exploded into a massive fireball. The plane had departed from Bangkok at 1:30 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Muan at 8:30 a.m.

The crash marked the worst aviation disaster in South Korea, killing the majority of passengers, including 82 men and 93 women ranging in age from 3 to 78 years old. Most of the victims were South Korean nationals, while two passengers were identified as Thai citizens.

A firefighting official explained that after the collision with the concrete wall, passengers were thrown from the aircraft, making survival highly unlikely. Identification of the victims' remains has been challenging, as the aircraft was almost entirely destroyed. Emergency teams have set up a temporary morgue at Muan Airport to house the bodies of the deceased.

Authorities suspect a landing gear failure, potentially caused by a bird strike, as the primary cause of the crash. Flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the wreckage, but a full investigation could take months to determine the exact cause.

South Korea's Ministry of Defense revealed that the airport control tower had issued a bird strike warning at 8:54 a.m. The pilot sent a distress signal at 8:59 a.m., initiating an emergency landing four minutes later without functional landing gear.

Find more news and articles on Google News