South Korea plane crash: ‘Little chance of survival’ with airliner ‘almost completely destroyed’

Seoul: There was little chance that remaining passengers on a crashed Jeju Air flight survived, a South Korean fire department official said Sunday, after emergency workers recovered two survivors from the plane debris.

“Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the barrier, leaving little chance of survival,” a local fire department said in a statement. The plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok to South Korea crashed on arrival with 85 confirmed dead.

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The plane was “almost completely destroyed" in a crash landing on arrival in South Korea Sunday, added the fire department, with the search for bodies proving slow. “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,” the fire department in Muan said in a statement.

Landing gear failure likely factor in crash

Emergency officials in Muan have indicated that the plane’s landing gear likely failed, which may have contributed to the devastating crash. The aircraft, returning from Bangkok, was carrying 181 people, including two Thai nationals. The crash occurred at approximately 9:03 am local time, with 85 confirmed fatalities so far, including 46 women and 39 men.

Emergency responders swiftly deployed 32 fire trucks and multiple helicopters to contain the fire and rescue any survivors. In a fortunate turn, two crew members were pulled from the wreckage alive, though they sustained severe injuries.

This tragedy represents one of the deadliest air disasters in South Korean history, marking a devastating loss of life. The country has not witnessed an aviation catastrophe of this magnitude since the 1997 Korean Airlines crash in Guam, which resulted in 228 fatalities.

With Agency inputs