Mourning the South Korea plane crash victims: ‘The entire family has just disappeared’
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With no more hope of survivors, families of those killed in today’s plane crash in South Korea are having to come to terms with the devastating loss. A total of 179 people died after Jeju Air flight 7C2216 belly-landed at Muan Airport, skidded into a concrete wall and burst into flames.
![[epaselect epa11797178 People react after a Jeju Air aircraft crashed at Muan International Airport in Muan, 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul, South Korea, 29 December 2024. According to the National Fire Agency, a passenger jet carrying 181 people erupted in flames after going off the runway at an airport in South Korea's southwestern county of Muan on 29 December, leaving at least 176 people dead and 3 missing, as two crew members survived. EPA/HAN MYUNG-GU]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234456176-2e74.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Only a man and a woman survived, both crew members. They were pulled from the inferno and are now being treated in hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The man, a 33-year-old flight attendant, suffered multiple fractures, while the 25-year-old woman is said to have injured her ankle and head.
![[Relatives of passengers of the aircraft that crashed after it went off the runway, react at Muan International Airport, in Muan, South Korea, December 29, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234450416-3e12.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
At the airport, family members of those who didn’t make it waited for their loved ones’ bodies to be identified. Wails could be heard as officials announced names of some, while several yellow tents were set up to give people privacy. All of the passengers onboard the plane, which had flown from Bangkok, Thailand, were Korean apart from two who were Thai.
![[Firefighters and rescue team members work near the wreckage of a passenger plane at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234439388-b2e7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
One man waiting at the airport, 78-year-old Maeng Gi-su, told the BBC his nephew and his nephew’s two sons had been on the flight. They’d travelled to Thailand to celebrate the youngest taking his college entrance exams. ‘I can’t believe the entire family has just disappeared. My heart aches so much’, Mr Gi-su said.
Speaking to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, one woman who gave her surname as Kim said her sister had been onboard the flight. ‘She’s had so many hardships and gone travelling because her situation was only just beginning to improve,’ she added.
![[epa11796813 Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae (C-R) and other company officials express their apologies ahead of a press conference held in Seoul, South Korea, 29 December 2024, hours after the deadly crash of one of its flights at Muan International Airport in Muan, 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul. EPA/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234440735-c6e9.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
