By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A plane skidded off a runway in South Korea on Sunday, crashed into a concrete fence and burst into flames after its landing gear apparently failed to extend. All but two of the 181 people on board died in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters, officials said.

The 737-800 plane, operated by Jeju Air, arrived from Bangkok and crashed while attempting to land in the city of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul.

Footage of the crash broadcast by South Korean television channels showed the plane skidding down the runway at high speed, apparently with the landing gear still closed, and hitting a concrete wall, triggering an explosion. Other television stations broadcast footage showing thick, black clouds of smoke from the plane engulfed in flames.

According to the South Korean fire department, 179 people died in the crash. Rescue workers pulled two crew members to safety. They were conscious and did not appear to have life-threatening injuries, health officials said.

Lee Jeong-hyeon, head of the Muan Fire Station, said at a televised news conference that the plane was completely destroyed and only the tail was visible in the rubble. Officials are investigating the cause of the crash, including whether the plane was struck by birds, Lee said.

The control tower warned the plane about birds shortly before it was scheduled to land and gave the crew permission to land in another area, ministry officials said. The crew sent a distress signal shortly before the crash, officials said.

Senior Transportation Ministry official Joo Jong-wan said workers had recovered the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders. He said it could take investigators months to complete their investigation. The runway at Muan Airport will be closed until January 1, the ministry said.

Kyle Bailey, a former FAA safety representative in the US, told Fox News that it seemed to him that the plane was traveling too fast as it skidded on the runway and then hit a structure. which he believed housed instrument landing equipment.

“I think that was basically the disaster for this plane,” he said.

One of the survivors was treated for fractures to his ribs, shoulder blade and upper spine, said Ju Woong, director of Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital. Ju said the man, whose name was not released, told doctors he “woke up and found himself saved.” Details about the other survivor were not immediately available.

The passengers were mostly South Koreans, including two people from Thailand. Officials identified 88 of them in the hours after the crash, the fire department said.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra expressed his condolences to the families of the passengers on board the plane in a post on X. Paetongtarn said she had directed the Foreign Ministry to provide assistance.

Boonchuay Duangmanee, the father of a Thai passenger, told the Associated Press that his daughter Jongluk worked in a factory in South Korea for several years and returned to Thailand to visit her family.

“I never thought this would be the last time we would see each other forever,” he said.

Kerati Kijmanawat, the director of Thailand’s airports, confirmed in a statement that Jeju Air Flight 7C 2216 took off from Suvarnabhumi Airport with no reports of anything unusual on board the aircraft or on the runway.

Jeju Air expressed its “deep apologies” for the crash in a statement and said it would “do its utmost to deal with the consequences of the accident.”

In a televised news conference, the company’s president, Kim E-bae, bowed deeply along with other senior company officials as he apologized to the bereaved and said he felt “fully responsible” for the crash. Kim said the company had found no mechanical problems with the plane after regular checks and that he would await the results of government investigations into the cause of the incident.

Family members wailed as officials announced the names of some of the victims in a lounge at Muan airport.

Boeing said in a statement on X that it was in contact with Jeju Air and stood ready to help the company deal with the crash.

The crash came as South Korea was embroiled in a political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s surprise declaration of martial law and subsequent impeachment. South Korean lawmakers on Friday impeached incumbent President Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, leading to Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok taking over.

Choi, who traveled to the site in Muan, urged officials to use all available resources to identify the dead as quickly as possible. The government declared Muan a special disaster area and imposed a week-long national mourning period.

Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, chaired an emergency meeting of senior presidential aides to discuss the crash and provided the details to Choi. Yoon expressed his condolences to the victims in a Facebook post.

In St. Peter’s Square in Rome, Pope Francis said he joined in “prayer for the survivors and the dead.”

The Muan crash is one of the deadliest disasters in South Korean aviation history. The last time South Korea experienced a major aviation disaster was in 1997, when a Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines plane crashed in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring about 200.

Sunday’s accident was also one of the worst landing disasters since the July 2007 crash that killed all 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground when an Airbus A320 slid off a slippery runway in Sao Paulo, Brazil nearby building encountered data from the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group that aims to improve aviation safety.

According to the safety foundation, 158 people died in 2010 when an Air India Express plane overshot a runway in Mangalore, India, and plunged into a ravine before bursting into flames.

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Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan in New York, Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.

Originally published: December 28, 2024 at 4:56 pm PST