South Korea plane crash kills 179 with investigation into cause under way

BBC:

All passengers and most of the crew onboard a Jeju Air flight have died after the plane crash-landed at an airport in South Korea on Sunday.

A total of 179 of the 181 people travelling on the Boeing 737-800 were killed, with just two survivors – both cabin staff – pulled from the burning wreckage.

The plane landed at Muan International Airport in the country’s south, skidding off the runway and crashing into a wall in a fiery explosion.

Flight 2216 had been returning from Bangkok, Thailand with six crew and 175 passengers, many of them holidaymakers.

An investigation into the cause is under way – with experts and officials pointing to a number of possible factors.

Distraught families gathered in the airport’s arrival hall in tears, as they waited for bodies to be identified.

Some of those killed have been identified only by their fingerprints.

Maeng Gi-su, 78, told the BBC his nephew and his nephew’s two sons had been on the plane.

“I can’t believe the entire family has just disappeared,” he said. “My heart aches so much.”

The passengers included 173 South Koreans and two Thai nationals. They were aged between three and 78, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.