Jeolla
\nA Jeju Air flight traveling from Bangkok to South Korea crashed on Sunday morning at Muan International Airport, resulting in at least 167 fatalities.
\nThe Boeing 737-800, carrying 181 people, including 175 passengers and six crew members, collided with a barrier shortly after attempting to land. The plane then burst into flames, leaving only two survivors, both flight attendants.
\nThe accident occurred at 9:03 am local time (00:03 GMT), involving a Jeju Air flight that had just arrived from Bangkok, Thailand, carrying 175 passengers and six crew members.
\nThe Boeing 737-800 jet, which was attempting to land in Muan, reportedly encountered a malfunction in its landing gear.
\nSouth Korea\u2019s National Fire Agency reported that at least 167 people lost their lives in the blaze, including 79 women, 77 men, and 11 individuals whose genders were not immediately identified.
\nTwo survivors, a crew member and a passenger, were rescued, but hopes for finding more survivors are fading. The fire has since been extinguished, but the scale of the damage has left little chance for recovery.
\nBird strike suspected
\nAuthorities have suggested that a bird strike, in combination with adverse weather conditions, likely caused the crash. According to the Ministry of Land, the bird strike warning was issued three minutes before the plane made its attempt to land.
\nVideo footage from the scene shows the plane skidding across the runway on its belly, emitting thick smoke from the engines before slamming into a wall and erupting in flames. \u201cPassengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival,\u201d a fire official explained.
\nThe plane, almost entirely destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire, has made identification of the deceased challenging.
\nEmergency response
\nThe South Korean government has swiftly mobilized resources to support rescue efforts. Acting President Choi Sang-mok, who took office only recently, convened an emergency meeting to oversee the response.
\n\u201cI believe no words of consolation would suffice for the bereaved families who have suffered this tragedy,\u201d said Choi in a statement. The government is dedicating all available resources to manage the aftermath and provide support to the families affected.
\nPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan also expressed his condolences, posting on social media: \u201cDeeply saddened to learn about the tragic plane crash at Muan International Airport in Korea resulting in the loss of so many precious lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families.\u201d
\nAviation safety record
\nThis incident marks the first fatal accident in the history of Jeju Air, one of South Korea\u2019s largest low-cost carriers, which was established in 2005. The airline has previously experienced minor incidents, such as a runway offshoot in 2007, but this is its first fatal crash.
\nExperts say that South Korea\u2019s aviation industry, known for its solid safety record, has seen relatively few fatal accidents compared to other countries. However, bird strikes remain a global aviation concern due to the potential for catastrophic engine failure if birds are ingested into aircraft engines.
\nIn one notable incident in 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 famously made a successful emergency landing on the Hudson River after bird strikes disabled both of its engines. This was dubbed the \u201cMiracle on the Hudson\u201d due to the lack of casualties.
\nAirline response
\nJeju Air, along with Boeing, is fully cooperating with the investigation. The airline has apologised for the tragic loss of life and pledged to support the victims\u2019 families in every possible way. Boeing, in a statement, expressed its readiness to provide assistance to Jeju Air during the investigation process.
\nThe exact cause of the crash will be determined after a detailed joint investigation between aviation authorities and experts. While a bird strike and weather conditions are the likely causes, authorities caution that all possibilities will be explored.
\n2024: A tragic year of aviation accidents
\n2024 has witnessed several deadly crashes worldwide, raising alarm about aviation safety.
\nThe first major crash of the year occurred on August 9 in Brazil, when an ATR-72 aircraft operated by Voepass Airlines crashed in Vinhedo, S\u00e3o Paulo, killing 62 people, including 58 passengers and four crew members.
\nThe plane, which was traveling from Cascavel to Guarulhos, crashed near a residential area and caught fire, making it difficult to identify the victims.
\nThe Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) later determined that the pilots were dealing with icing conditions during the flight.
\nIn Kazakhstan, a crash on Wednesday morning involving Azerbaijan Airlines led to dozens of fatalities. The flight, which was carrying 67 people from Baku to Russia\u2019s Grozny, crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau. 25 survivors were rescued.
\nApart from the Jeju Air tragedy, other major crashes have also marred this year. In Japan, on January 2, a collision between a passenger plane and a coast guard aircraft at Tokyo\u2019s Haneda Airport resulted in the deaths of five coast guard members.
\nFortunately, all 379 passengers and crew aboard the commercial flight were safely evacuated.
\nIn the United States, Alaska Airlines\u2019 Boeing 737 MAX 9 had to make an emergency landing on January 5 after part of its fuselage detached mid-flight. The flight, en route from Oregon to California, landed safely despite the dangerous incident.
\nThere were 171 passengers and six crew members aboard.
\nAnother fatal crash occurred in Nepal on July 24, when a Saurya Airlines flight crashed during takeoff from Kathmandu\u2019s Tribhuvan International Airport. Of the 19 people aboard, 18 were killed. The pilot, who survived despite his injuries, was later able to provide details about the crash.
\nAlongside commercial aviation disasters, several military crashes also took place. On January 24, a Russian military plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war was shot down in Belgorod, Russia, by a Ukrainian rocket.
\nAll 74 people on board were killed, including six crew members and 65 Ukrainian soldiers.
\nOn March 12, another Russian aircraft, an IL-76 military cargo plane, crashed in Ivanovo, Russia, killing all 15 people aboard. The crash was attributed to a fire that broke out in one of the plane\u2019s engines.
\nAdditionally, on July 12, a Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed during a flight from Tretyakovo Airport to Vnukovo Airport, killing all three crew members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeolla A Jeju Air flight traveling from Bangkok to South Korea crashed on Sunday morning at Muan International Airport, resulting in at least 167 fatalities. The Boeing 737-800, carrying 181 people, including 175 passengers and six crew members, collided with a barrier shortly after attempting to land. The plane then burst into flames, leaving only …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":74908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74918,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74902\/revisions\/74918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}