CONTENT WARNING: Content in this article may be distressing.
Officials have confirmed that only two people out of the 181 aboard the Jeju Air flight have survived Sunday’s tragic crash.
On Sunday, at about 9.00am local time, Jeju Air flight 7C 2216, flying inbound from Bangkok to Muan International Airport, crashed and erupted into flames.
According to footage shared by South Korean media outlets, it appeared that the plane, a Boeing 737-800, was sliding at a high speed, before hitting a fence and exploding into a fireball.
In the footage, it appeared that neither the back nor the front landing gear had been deployed prior to the plane’s tragic crash.
Out of the 175 passengers, and six crew members, only two people were able to be saved from the wreckage, including one passenger and one flight attendant.
It’s believed the pair were sitting at the back of the plane.
What caused the Jeju Air flight crash?
While investigations are ongoing into how the crash occurred, CNN reported that both local fire officials and aviation experts believe the tragedy was a result of a landing gear malfunction.
Per the publication, the head of the Muan Fire Department, Lee Jeong-Hyun, told reporters the cause was “estimated to be the occurrence of a bird strike or bad weather.” However, crash investigations “could take years”, and experts have urged local officials not to speculate.
“Speculation is the worst enemy of an investigator,” David Soucie, former Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector, told CNN.
“In fact, that’s why it’s so protected when there is an aircraft accident investigation, the information is protected. They’re not supposed to be making any speculation about this type of thing.”
Jeju Air’s CEO Kim Yi-bae told reporters the aircraft showed “no signs of issues” ahead of Sunday’s tragedy, 9News reports.
“At this time, it is difficult to determine the cause of the accident, and we have to wait for the official announcement of the investigation by the relevant government agency,” Yi-bae said.
According to South Korea’s land ministry, both black boxes — a device that records flight data including tracking and voice recording — have been recovered from the Jeju Air flight.
As for the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing issued a statement on X, offering its condolences to the victims of Sunday’s crash.
“We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them,” it wrote on X.
— The Boeing Company (@Boeing) December 29, 2024
While Boeing as a company has faced some criticisms in recent years, such as two deadly 737 Max crashes in which the company’s CEO admitted to faulty anti-stall software on its passenger jets, aviation experts have described the Boeing 737-800 — a different model to the 737 Max — as a “reliable workhorse of the skies with an extremely strong safety record”.
Sunday’s Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 crash is South Korea’s worst plane crash in 20 years. In 1997, a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 crashed in the Guam jungle, leaving 228 people dead.
Image source: Getty Images / Chung Sung-Jun
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