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The crash occurred because the Jeju Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, landed at Muan Worldwide Airport in South Korea.
At the very least 47 individuals have been reported killed when a passenger aircraft veered off the runway and crashed at an airport within the South Korean metropolis of Muan, in keeping with stories.
The accident occurred on Sunday morning because the Jeju Air flight 7C2216, carrying 175 passengers and 6 crew from the Thai capital Bangkok, was touchdown at Muan Worldwide Airport within the south of the nation, South Korea’s Yonhap information company stories.
Citing firefighting authorities, the Yonhap information company stated that 47 individuals had been killed within the crash. The information company additionally reported that two individuals have been discovered alive.
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from South Korea’s capital Seoul, stated a significant rescue operation was beneath method on the airport within the southwest of the nation.
“This was a flight returning in a single day from Bangkok. There appears to have been some form of malfunction with the touchdown gear and pictures which have been on the media right here do seem to point out the aircraft touchdown on its stomach, skidding alongside the runway, adopted then by an enormous explosion,” McBride stated.
“Eyewitness accounts have talked then a couple of sequence of explosions and positively photos that we have now been seeing have proven a catastrophic fireplace,” he stated.
One photograph shared by native media confirmed thick clouds of black smoke popping out of the aircraft. One other confirmed the tail part of the jet engulfed in flames on what gave the impression to be the facet of the runway, with firefighters and emergency autos close by.
South Korea’s Performing President Choi Sang-mok, in the meantime, ordered “all-out efforts for rescue operations” at Muan airport.
“All associated companies… should mobilise all obtainable assets to save lots of the personnel,” he informed officers in a press release.
The crash is believed to have been brought on by “contact with birds, leading to malfunctioning touchdown gear” because the aircraft tried to land on the airport within the nation’s southwest, Yonhap additionally reported.