At least 124 people died on Sunday when a Jeju Air Boeing 737 landed without its wheels, veered off the runway and burst into flames after colliding with a wall at South Korea’s Muan International Airport.
South Korea’s transport ministry said that around 9 am, Jeju Air flight 7C2216, carrying 181 passengers, was attempting to land at the airport in the southwest of the nation after arriving from Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
Notably, it is the deadliest South Korean airline-related aviation mishap in over 30 years. Officials said that two individuals were rescued.
How did the incident unfold?
Shortly after landing, the aircraft veered off the runway and struck a barrier, causing the fire to spread. According to the nation’s emergency agency, its landing gear seems to have malfunctioned.
The outside wall that the aircraft collided with is believed to be a barrier between the airfield and ongoing development to extend the runway’s length by an additional 300 metres, reaching 2.8 kilometres.
A Muan International Airport official said, “To prevent unauthorised entry, this off-limits security area needs appropriate boundaries. There is nothing wrong with the arrangement.”
He did not, however, go into detail about whether there was enough room to the wall beyond the runway, which is referred to as a Runway Safety Area (RSA) and is intended to provide aircraft more room in the event of an overrun.
Additionally, the official failed to verify if an Engineered Materials Arrestor System (EMAS), which consists of beds of crushable material and is intended to prevent overrunning aircraft without the use of physical barriers like walls, was in place.
By late morning, firefighters claimed to have extinguished the fire.
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, offered his sincere sympathies to the families of those affected by the tragic event. Paetongtarn said she had given the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the authority to commence help immediately.
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