South Korea plane crash: Everything we know about Jeju disaster that killed 179 people in fireball
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In an instant over the weekend, nearly 200 people were killed in a fireball when Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 skidded on a runway and crashed. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft had flown from Thailand to South Korea where, when it came into land, its landing gear seemed to malfunction. Sunday’s crash was the worst in the country for several decades.
Aviation experts are now pouring over the plane’s black box to discover what caused the tragedy, a few days after Christmas Day. Here, we take a look at what we know what happened to cause the deaths of 179 people. At Muan International Airport in the south of the country, Flight 7C2216 was coming into land when its bird strike warning from the control centre went off. A distress message was issued by the pilot.
Moments later the plane landed with only its rear landing gear down and overshot the runway. It slammed into a concrete fence and exploded. The crash killed all but two of the 181 people aboard. Today, South Korean Transport Ministry officials said they will examine if the fence the plane hit should have been made with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact.
Witnesses told South Korea's Yonhap news agency that they saw sparks and heard an explosion. Yoo Jae-yong, 41, who was staying near the airport, said he saw a spark on the right wing shortly before the crash. He said he saw "black smoke billowing into the sky" after hearing a "loud explosion".
