SEOUL (Reuters) – At least 47 people were killed when a plane skidded off the runway and burst into a fireball after crashing into a wall at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday, a national fire official said.
Two crew members have been rescued, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The accident occurred when Jeju Air flight 7C2216, carrying 175 passengers and six crew members on a flight from the Thai capital, Bangkok, landed shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the southern airport. country, South Korea’s Transportation Ministry said.
The ministry could not confirm the casualty reports.
At least 33 bodies have been recovered, but that number is not definitive, another fire official told Reuters.
Two people were found alive and rescue operations were still underway, a Muan fire official said. The Yonhap news agency said three people had been rescued.
Authorities were working to rescue people in the queue section, an airport official told Reuters.
Video shared by local media showed the twin-engine plane skidding down the runway with no apparent landing gear before crashing into a wall in an explosion of flames and debris. Other photographs showed smoke and fire engulfing parts of the plane.
The passengers included two Thai nationals and the rest were believed to be South Koreans, according to the Ministry of Transport.
The plane was a Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air and was seeking details of the crash, including the victims and cause, an airline spokesperson said.
Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
All domestic and international flights at Muan airport were cancelled, Yonhap reported.
South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok, who was named the country’s interim leader on Friday after the previous acting president was impeached amid an ongoing political crisis, ordered all-out rescue efforts, his office said.
His chief of staff called an emergency meeting.