Jeju Air: Did bird strikes play a role in South Korean plane crash? What we know.

More than 170 people have died after one. The plane crashed while landing in South Korea. Sunday morning.

The Jeju Air plane skidded off the runway at Moan International Airport in the southwest of the country before hitting a wall.

There were 181 people on board the plane returning from Bangkok, Thailand, of which 179 people have died while two crew members have been rescued from the wreckage.

Officials are investigating the cause of the crash, which fire officials have indicated was a bird strike and inclement weather. has occurred However, experts have warned that this accident may be due to several factors.

The flight, 7C2216, was a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air, Korea’s most popular budget airline.

The aircraft arrived at Moan at approximately 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT).

A South Korean transport official said the plane was attempting to land but had to stop after air traffic control issued a bird strike warning.

About two minutes later, the pilot called a mayday and air traffic command cleared the plane to land in the opposite direction, the official said.

According to local media, a passenger on the flight texted a relative that a bird was “stuck in the wing” and that the plane could not land.

One video shows the plane touching down without using its wheels or any other landing gear. It slid down the runway and hit a wall before bursting into flames.

A witness told South Korean news agency Yonhap that they heard a “series of explosions” followed by a “loud explosion”.

Videos from the scene showed the plane on fire and smoke billowing into the sky. After which the fire brigade staff have brought the fire under control.

Moan Fire Department Chief Lee Jeong-hyun told a televised briefing that the tail section of the plane was recognizable but “can’t make out the shape of the rest of the plane”.

A bird strike and bad weather may have contributed to the crash – but the exact cause is still being investigated, he said. Flight and voice recorders have been recovered from the plane.

Jeju Air’s management chief said the crash was not caused by “maintenance issues,” Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korea’s transport department said the flight’s chief pilot had held the role since 2019 and had more than 6,800 hours of flight experience.

A bird strike is a collision between an aircraft and a bird in flight. They are very common – in the UK, more than 1400 bird strikes were reported in 2022, of which only 100 affected aircraft. Civil Aviation Authority data.

The most famous bird strike occurred in 2009, when a The Airbus plane crashed into the Hudson River in New York. After hitting a flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew survived.

Professor Doug Drury, who teaches aviation at CQUniversity Australia, wrote in an article The conversation Boeing planes this summer have turbofan engines, which can cause serious damage in a bird strike.

Pilots are trained to be especially alert early in the morning or at sunset, when the birds are most active, he said.

The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members. Officials said two of the passengers were Thai nationals and the rest were believed to be from South Korea. Many are believed to be returning from Christmas holidays in Thailand.

The official death toll is 179 – the deadliest plane crash in South Korea’s history.

All passengers and four crew members were killed.

Authorities have so far identified at least 88 bodies.

Five of the dead were children under the age of 10. The youngest passenger was a three-year-old boy and the oldest was 78, officials said, citing the passenger manifest.

South Korea’s National Fire Agency said two crew members — a man and a woman — survived the crash. He was found on the tail side of the plane after the crash and taken to hospital, it said.

More than 1,500 emergency personnel have been deployed as part of the recovery effort, including 490 firefighters and 455 police officers. They are searching the area around the runway for plane parts and people on board.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok has declared a special disaster zone in Muan, making central government financial aid available to local governments and victims.

All flights to and from Moan International Airport have been cancelled.

Families of victims of the accident are traveling to the airport in hopes of finding out what happened to their loved ones. Video footage from Reuters shows officials reading the names of the victims aloud.

Airport officials and the Red Cross have set up more than a dozen tents at the airport for bereaved families to grieve in private.

Cries echoed from the terminal. Some people are frustrated with how long it is taking to identify the bodies.

Jeju Air has apologized to the family. The airline has no history of accidents, its chief executive said at a news conference. Sunday’s crash is believed to be the only fatal accident since the airline’s launch in 2005.

Boeing has expressed its condolences to the victims.

South Korea’s Acting President Choi said: “I express my deepest condolences to the many victims in this incident. I will do everything possible for the speedy recovery of the injured.”

The government has declared national mourning for the next seven days in the country, during which flags will be flown at government offices.