What we know
- 179 people were killed as a plane crashed while landing at South Korea's Muan International Airport. Two remain unaccounted for.
- The Boeing 737-800 Jeju Air flight, carrying 181 people, was arriving from Bangkok.
- Two survivors were pulled from the tail end of the wreckage with moderate injuries.
- Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.
- A bird strike started the sequence of events that led to the crash, according to South Korean officials. The plane then hit a structure, failed to lower its landing gear and skidded across the runway before it crashed into a wall and burst into flames.
Red Cross sets up waiting room for bereaved families
Volunteers and staff of the Red Cross have set up waiting room for bereaved families and are providing psychological support, the organization said today.
The Red Cross dispatched disaster psychological recovery support, refrigerated tower vehicles and a shower vehicle to the airport, providing 100 shelters as well as utilities and emergency food kits.
This also includes dozens of meals to support some nearly 800 people.
The flight took off from Thailand and traveled off the coast of China toward South Korea.
Identities of 65 people confirmed out of 179 dead
The identities of at least 65 out of the 179 people confirmed dead have been determined, South Korea's National Fire Agency said.
Crash survivor says he was already rescued when he woke up
One of the two survivors of the plane crash, a 33-year-old flight attendant with the surname Lee, was pulled from the tail of the wreckage and transferred to Ewha Woman's University Seoul Hospital.
"When I woke up, I had already been rescued," the hospital director, Ju Woong, quoted Lee as telling the doctors, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
Ju, who was speaking at a news conference, said the patient arrived with multiple fractures in his ribs and traumatic spinal injuries.
Lee was being treated in intensive care and was able to communicate. “There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such,” he said, adding Lee was under special care due to the possible aftereffects, including paralysis.
The other survivor, a 25-year-old woman with the surname Koo, was taken to Asan Medical Center in Seoul.
She reportedly sustained injuries to her ankle and head, and was in stable condition.
How safe is the Boeing 737-800?
The Jeju Air crash involved a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, a narrow-body passenger jet that is widely used by airlines around the world, including low-cost ones like Jeju Air.
The aircraft was part of Boeing's Next-Generation family, and is one of the company's safest airplanes. According to company statistics, the Next-Gen 737 line, including the 600, 700 and 900s, had been involved in a total of 10 fatal hull losses between 1997-2023, for a rate of 0.08 incidents per 1 million flights.
That's lower than the overall fatal hull loss rate across all jets of 0.55 since 1959, though most of that is skewed by decades-old accidents involving jets now out of commission.
A hull loss is when the aircraft is damaged or destroyed beyond repair.
The Boeing 737's safety record is comparable to its competition, Airbus' A320.
Families erupt in tears as names of deceased are pronounced dead at the airport
As the confirmed death toll ticked up in the hours after the crash, families awaited news of their loved ones on the first floor of the Muan International Airport to hear an announcer carefully began reading out the names of those confirmed dead.
Screams and cries erupted from family members as the identities were confirmed, according to reports by the local news agency Newsis.
The room would drop to silence the moment a name was being announced, with relatives breaking down in tears or collapsing.
Two people were pulled alive from the wreckage, but after several hours of recovery operations, the remaining 179 passengers and crew were confirmed to have been killed in the crash.
South Korean government declares period of national mourning
The South Korean government has declared a period of national mourning until Jan. 4, acting president Choi Sang-mok said during a meeting in Seoul.
Joint memorial altars will also be set up at the accident site, he announced, as well as in Jeollanam-do, Gwangju, Seoul, Sejong and 17 other cities and provinces.
Two survive, 179 out of 181 people confirmed dead
The National Fire Agency has confirmed the deaths of 179 people, accounting for all of the passengers and crew on the Jeju Air flight.
Two people, both crew members, survived the crash.
What we know about the cause of the crash
While officials say it's too early to ascertain the exact cause of the crash, a bird strike is so far believed to have sparked the deadly chain of events. Bird strikes are not uncommon in aviation and in most cases don't lead to a fatal accident.
Pilots began landing on Runway 1, but were then instructed to land on the opposite side, Runway 19, following a bird strike warning, South Korean officials said. However, almost immediately, pilots declared a mayday alert following a bird strike and attempted to land on Runway 19.
It was on this attempt that the airplane skidded along the runway without landing gear and burst into flames as it hit a barrier at the end of the runway, a video verified by NBC News showed.
It is unclear why the gear was not lowered, but officials also said the plane hit the localizer as it tried to land, a landing guidance system at the beginning of each runway, before it crashed into the barrier.
An eyewitness told a local news outlet that he heard the plane make banging noises and saw it make a very sharp turn during its final approach.
'It felt dangerous,' eyewitness describes last moments of the fatal crash
Lee Geun-Young was inside his restaurant, less than a quarter mile from the airport, when he heard loud banging noises coming from outside, he told the Korean news outlet Seoul Shinmun in an interview today.
"Instead of heading toward the runway, the plane flew right over our store," Lee, 49, said as he described the last moments of the ill-fated aircraft. Lee said he watched the plane as it turned around attempt landing on the runway.
"This plane was turning in a much tighter radius," he said. "It felt dangerous so I immediately went up to the rooftop and started filming."