Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, authorities told AFP, with 29 confirmed dead and dramatic video showing the aircraft bursting into flames.
Video shared by the local MBC broadcaster showed the Jeju Air plane -- a Boeing 737-8AS according to Flight Radar -- landing at the Muan airport runway, with smoke streaming out from the engines, before the entire aircraft is quickly engulfed in flames.
"We have so far confirmed 29 deaths from the crash," Lee Hyeon-ji, a response team officer at the local fire department, told AFP. "But the tally could rise due to the critically injured," she added. Rescue authorities were evacuating passengers from the rear section of the jet, Lee said
The Muan International Airport is in Muan county, which is about 288 kilometres (179 miles) southwest of Seoul.
The fire agency said it had mobilised 32 fire engines and scores of fire fighters to the scene. The accident took place at 9:03 am (1203 GMT) on Sunday during the landing of Jeju Air Flight 2216 (Bangkok to Muan), the Ministry of Land said. "A total of 175 passengers (including 2 Thai nationals) and 6 crew members were onboard," it said.
The initial fire was extinguished and a search and rescue operations was "under way at the crash site", it said in a statement at around 11am local.
Officials suspect a landing gear failure, possibly due to a bird strike, may have caused the accident. They have begun an on-site investigation to determine the exact cause, the Yonhap news agency reported. A photo showed the tail section of the jet engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok called for the mobilisation of all resources to save the passengers. "All related agencies... must mobilise all available resources to save the personnel," he instructed officials in a statement.