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Plane explodes on landing at South Korean airport; 179 of 181 passengers presumed dead
About 180 people were aboard the Jeju Air plane that was returning from Bangkok.
All passengers, barring two, of a plane carrying 181 people were presumed dead after the aircraft caught fire on landing at the airport in southern South Korean city of Muan on Sunday, the emergency office said. The plane was returning from Thailand's Bangkok.
The Jeju Air plane was carrying 175 passengers and six flight attendants, reports said, citing South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. Emergency office said the fire was mostly put out, adding that rescue officials were trying to remove passengers from the aircraft. Follow South Korea plane crash LIVE updates
Local authorities initially confirmed 28 deaths from the crash but the tally rose as dozens of people were critically injured. Two people were confirmed to have been rescued while 179 passengers and crew were presumed dead, South Korean news agency Yanhop said.
Local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the plane engulfed with flame.
The Jeju Air plane was a Boeing 737-800.
Yonhap news agency reported the plane with malfunctioning landing gear veered off the runway and collided with a fence. Emergency officials said they were examining the exact cause of the fire. Visuals showed the plane landing without the landing gear opening and eventually exploding.
On video | South Korean aircraft exploding after landing at Muan airport
In a statement hours after the incident, Jeju Air said, “We deeply apologize to all those affected by the incident at Muan Airport.”
“We will make every effort to resolve the situation. We sincerely regret the distress caused,” Jeju Air said in the statement out out on its website.
The incident comes close on the heels of the Azerbaijan Airline plane crash which took place near Kazakhstan's Aktau last week, killing 38 of the 67 people on board and leaving all others injured.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 from Azerbaijan's capital Baku flew hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, and crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea around 3 km (1.8 miles) from Aktau in Kazakhstan.
It is not known why the plane veered off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea, however, reports earlier said it was rerouted due to fog but later preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation cited in a Reuters said that Russian air defences had mistakenly shot it down.
Russia's aviation watchdog said on Friday the plane had decided to reroute from its original destination amid dense fog and a local alert over Ukrainian drones.
Amid speculation of Russia's mistaken shooting down of the aircraft, President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Azerbaijan's leader for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over his country but did not acknowledge that the aircraft was shot down.
