A passenger plane crashed and burst into flames in South Korea: 179 people died, two miraculously survived. Photos and video

On Sunday, December 29, a plane crash occurred in South Korea: a Boeing 737-800 passenger plane flew off the runway and collided with a fence at the Muan Airport. Firefighters confirmed the deaths of 179 people.

This was reported by Yonhap. The Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 was flying from Bangkok to Muan, a city located 300 km from Seoul. There were 175 passengers and six crew members on board.

At 9:00 a.m. local time, the plane was landing without releasing the landing gear, which led to a runway slip, a collision with a fence, and a fire. The preliminary cause of the crash is a collision with birds.

The Yonhap news agency notes that only two of the 181 people on board survived: a passenger and a flight attendant. The bodies of the victims were found in the tail section of the plane.

"Authorities are conducting an on-site investigation to determine the exact cause of the crash, and rescue operations are underway," officials said.

As of 14:20 Kyiv time, the Korean fire service, according to Yonhap, has recovered the bodies of all 179 people who died.

Most of the passengers were Korean, except for two Thai nationals.

The emergency landing of a plane at Muan Airport on Sunday was likely caused by a collision with birds, firefighters said.

"The preliminary cause is believed to be a collision with birds or a technical malfunction. The exact conclusion will be made after the investigation," said Lee Jong-hyun, head of the Muan Fire Department.

Video from the scene shows how the plane landed on its belly due to a landing gear malfunction, after which it burst into flames. The weather was clear at the time of the crash.

Rescuers will begin searching for the flight data recorders, or so-called black boxes, of the Jeju Air plane after they find the rest of the victims.

The flight data recorders contain important information for the crash investigation. More than 700 police, military and coast guard personnel are involved in the operation.

The Muan Fire Department noted that the identification of the victims and fixing the places of their deaths is ongoing. The bodies will be taken to the airport morgue for identification and transfer to the families for burial.

According to the video of the crash, the plane's landing gear was probably not released during the emergency landing, a CNN transportation analyst said.

Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation, suggested that an engine malfunction or indicator damage could have occurred. Another version is that the pilot was trying to abort the landing to check the landing gear.

As OBOZ.UA reported, on December 25, a passenger plane flying from Baku to Grozny crashed in Kazakhstan. There were 62 passengers and five crew members on board, 38 people died.

The passenger plane could have been shot down by Russian air defense. It was reported that traces of shelling were found on the fuselage.

Later, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, said that the Embraer E-190 of Azerbaijan Airlines was shot down by a Russian Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile system.

The United States also found the first signs that Russian air defense systems may have been involved in the tragedy.

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