Flight 7C 2216 was returning from Bangkok when the Boeing 737-800 made a high-speed landing with its landing gear apparently not deployed. The aircraft left the runway, crossed a buffer area and struck a concrete barrier, triggering a fire. Images broadcast by South Korean television showed the jet sliding along the runway before the impact. Only the tail section remained readily identifiable in the wreckage.
The dead included 175 passengers and four crew members. The Transport Ministry said two passengers were Thai nationals. The aircraft was 15 years old, according to the ministry. Muan is about 290 kilometres south of Seoul.
Authorities had not determined the cause of the crash. Transport officials said an airport control tower issued a bird-strike warning shortly before the attempted landing and cleared the pilots to use a different landing area. The crew sent a distress signal before the aircraft overran the runway. Investigators recovered both the flight-data recorder and cockpit-voice recorder for examination by government experts. Officials were considering several possible factors, including a bird strike, and did not present the apparent landing-gear problem as a final cause.
The fire agency deployed 32 fire engines and several helicopters. About 1,560 firefighters, police officers, military personnel and other officials were sent to the site. The airport runway was scheduled to remain closed through January 1 while recovery and investigative work continued.
Jeju Air apologised and said it would devote its efforts to managing the aftermath. Company president Kim E-bae bowed with senior executives during a televised news conference and accepted responsibility for the response, while saying routine inspections had not identified a mechanical problem with the aircraft. Boeing said it was in contact with the airline and ready to offer assistance.
Airports of Thailand said the flight had departed Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport without any reported abnormality involving the aircraft or runway. Thailand’s prime minister directed the foreign ministry to assist those affected.
At Muan airport, relatives gathered in a lounge while officials began releasing victims’ names. The scale of the loss left the two rescued crew members as the only survivors from the entire flight, while investigators faced the separate tasks of explaining the landing sequence, the runway overrun and the fire after impact.
The disaster ranked among South Korea’s deadliest aviation accidents. It brought the country its largest aviation death toll since a Korean Air flight crashed in Guam in 1997, killing 228 people.
