SEOUL, South Korea – Two people survived and 177 were confirmed dead in a commercial plane crash Sunday at an airport in South Korea, officials said. There were 181 passengers and crew on board, and two are still unaccounted for.
Jeju Air flight 2216 skidded off the runway while landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea, bursting into flames after it crashed, a spokesman for the Group said. The country's National Fire Service.
The airport is about 180 miles south of Seoul.
The Boeing 787-800 departed from Bangkok, Thailand, shortly after 2 a.m. local time (2 p.m. Saturday ET), according to the airline platform FlightAware. It was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members, said Joo Jong-wan, director of the Aviation Policy Department at South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
At least two of the passengers were Thai, Joo said.
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“The pilot called a mayday after sending out a bird strike warning,” Joo said, adding that the plane was “completely destroyed” in the crash.
The plane skidded across the runway and exploded as it crashed into a barrier, a video verified by NBC News showed. The tail of the plane was the only part that seemed to be intact as flames engulfed the plane, sending a plume of black smoke into the air.
Joo described the chain of events that led to the accident.
The plane first attempted to land on Runway 1 at the airport. But the control tower then asked the pilots to land on the other side, Runway 19, because of a bird strike warning, Joo said.
A moment later, the pilots signaled Mayday after a bird strike and attempted to land on Runway 19.
While crossing the runway, the aircraft failed to lower the landing gear and hit a safety system called a localizer – a giving instructions during landing – and crashed into a wall, Joo said.
The accident happened around 9:03 a.m. local time (7:03 p.m. ET Saturday), and firefighters put out the first fireat 9:46 a.m. local time, the fire agency spokesman said.
The country's national fire agency later confirmed the deaths of 177 people, making it the deadliest air disaster of the year and the first fatal accident in history for the low-cost airline, which was was established in 2005.
Among those killed, there were at least 77 women and 79 men. The genders of the other victims were not immediately known.
Two crew members – a man and a woman – were rescued and were moderately injured but conscious, Joo said. Officials originally said the rescued couple were a passenger and a crew member.
The plane was “completely destroyed by fire,” Joo said at a briefing, adding that investigators have recovered both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, which will be crucial in providing glimpses of the final moments of the fatal landing.
The full investigation, he said, could take between six months and three years.
The plane's manufacturer, Boeing, extended its condolences to the families of the victims and said they were in contact with the airline. In a statement, Jeju Air apologized to “everyone affected by the incident”.
“Above all, we offer our sincere condolences and apologies to the passengers who tragically lost their lives in the accident and to their bereaved families,” said Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae, who ' accepts “full responsibility for this tragedy” and says that the airline would support the families of the passengers.
South Korea's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, called for immediate and full mobilization efforts “to send out the fire and rescue people,” the Ministry of Interior and Security said in report
The president's office said in a text message that an emergency meeting was being held about the accident.
In a statement, the country's national defense ministry said it had called an emergency response team and sent armed personnel and equipment to the site to provide assistance.
Choi later arrived at the site and declared it a “special disaster zone” while expressing his condolences to the victims and their families and saying the government would has a “thorough investigation” into what caused the accident.
Joo said more than 1,500 personnel from various agencies were conducting search and recovery efforts. The deceased was being held for some time at a mobile mortuary set up at the airport, said Joo.
Stella Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea, and Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
