Death toll in Jeju Air plane crash rises to 179 with only two survivors
All but two people have been killed after a Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok crash-landed in South Korea's Muan International Airport on Sunday. Authorities have suggested the crash may have been caused by the plane hitting birds amid bad weather.
A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, leaving all but two dead.
A bird strike and adverse weather conditions were cited by authorities as likely causes of the crash that flung passengers out of the plane and left it "almost completely destroyed", according to fire officials.
Video showed the Jeju Air plane from Bangkok landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames.
"Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival," a local fire official told families at a briefing, according to a statement released by the fire brigade.
"The plane is almost completely destroyed, and identifying the deceased is proving difficult. The process is taking time as we locate and recover the remains," he was quoted as saying.
"Of the 179 dead, 65 have been identified," the country's fire agency said of the crash.
The accident took place in a matter of minutes from 9:03am (00:03 GMT) on Sunday during the landing of Jeju Air Flight 2216, the Ministry of Land said, with 175 passengers, including two Thai nationals, and six crew onboard.
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