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The accident occurred when a Jeju Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, landed at Muan International Airport in South Korea.
At least 62 people were killed when a passenger plane skidded off the runway and crashed at an airport in the South Korean city of Muan, the country's National Fire Agency said.
The accident occurred on Sunday at 9:03 a.m. local time (00:03 GMT) when Jeju Air flight 7C2216, carrying 175 passengers and six crew from the Thai capital Bangkok, was landing at Port- Muan International Airport in the southwest of the country.
The National Fire Agency confirmed that 62 people had been killed, and rescue operations are ongoing.
The agency said the fire had been put out but rescuers were still trying to pull people from the wreckage of the plane.
Al Jazeera's Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, South Korea, said a major rescue operation was underway at the airport, which is about 289km (179 miles) southwest of the capital. village
“This was an overnight return flight from Bangkok. There appears to have been some kind of malfunction with the landing gear and the images that have been in the media here appear to show the plane landing on landed on his stomach, sliding on the runway, and then a big explosion,” McBride said.
“Witness accounts have then spoken of a series of explosions and certainly images that we have been seeing have shown a large fire,” he said.
It was reported that the plane, a Boeing 737-800 jet, was carrying two passengers from Thailand and the rest were believed to be South Koreans.
A photo shared by local media showed thick clouds of black smoke coming out of the plane. Another showed the tail section of the jetty engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports that the crash is believed to have been caused by “contact with birds, which caused a faulty landing gear” as the plane attempted to land at its ' airport.
Meanwhile, South Korean Acting President Choi Sang-mok ordered “outside efforts for rescue operations” at Muan airport.
“All related agencies … must activate all available resources to save the workers,” he told officials in a statement.
The crash is the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of South Korea's largest low-cost airlines, which was founded in 2005.
In August 2007 a Bombardier Q400 operated by Jeju Air carrying 74 passengers came off the runway due to strong winds at Busan-Gimhae South Airport, causing twelve injuries.
Experts say South Korea's aviation industry has a strong record of safety.
