At 9 am local time on Dec. 29, a Jeju Air passenger aircraft crashed while landing at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. There were 175 people on board, including 173 South Koreans, 2 Thais, and 6 crew members. Only 2 crew members were rescued; the remaining 179 people perished. There were no casualties among Chinese citizens in this incident. The two black boxes from the crashed aircraft have been recovered.
This is the deadliest civil aviation disaster in South Korea's history and the first serious accident involving a low-cost carrier in the country. The nation will mourn for 7 days.
The crashed aircraft was Jeju Air Flight 7C 2216, a Boeing 737-800, which was 15 years old. The flight took off from Bangkok, Thailand, at 1:30 am on Dec. 29 and was scheduled to arrive at Muan Airport at 8:30 am local time. Records indicate that the aircraft attempted to land but could not do so safely and crashed during a second attempt.
Experts noted it was unusual that the landing gear did not deploy. Preliminary analyses suggest that the crash may have resulted from a bird strike that prevented the landing gear from being lowered correctly.
However, some experts believe the incident is not typical, as bird strikes usually have a low correlation with landing gear failure. Pilots can typically manually lower the landing gear even if the aircraft's engines and hydraulic systems are inoperable.
Some analyses suggest that the aircraft did not deploy its landing gear and performed a belly landing, causing the fuselage to catch fire upon contact with the ground. A senior South Korean pilot mentioned that if the front landing gear had not been deployed, the crew's primary action should have been to go around.
There are claims that Muan Airport's runway is relatively short at only 2.8 kilometers, which may have contributed to the accident. However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport stated that similar aircraft had safely taken off and landed at this airport, making it difficult to attribute the runway length as a cause of the accident.
Flight 7C 2216 was supposed to continue from Muan to Beijing after arriving. Chinese tourists waiting at Jeju Airport expressed disbelief upon learning of the crash. One mentioned the airport staff initially informed them that the flight was delayed, and many Chinese tourists gathered at the check-in counter to ask how long the delay would be.
Jeju Air has not yet provided further responses regarding subsequent flight cancellations. One woman mentioned that currently, only one Chinese airline is available for return, but tickets are sold out. She said that her family is considering taking a ferry back home.
Authorities have released the identities of the victims, with the youngest being a 3-year-old boy and the oldest an 80-year-old man. Among the 175 passengers, 103 were over 50 years old, and there were 5 children under 10.
The oldest passenger traveled with his family of nine to celebrate his 80th birthday. Before boarding the ill-fated flight, they concluded their trip in Bangkok, Thailand.
One woman mentioned her mother had been battling cancer for over a year; it was a rare opportunity for travel, but she tragically lost her life in the crash.
Due to severe damage to the fuselage, as of 10 pm last night, only 88 of the victims' identities had been confirmed.
Global Series of Aviation Incidents
On the evening of Dec. 28, a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 737-800 carrying 182 people experienced hydraulic failure shortly after takeoff. The aircraft strayed off the runway while attempting to land elsewhere and slid into adjacent grass. Currently, there are no reports of casualties.
A Canadian regional aircraft encountered difficulties while landing on Dec. 28, with a passenger reporting, "I saw the left side of the plane on fire; smoke was coming in through the window." The crew and 73 passengers were unharmed, and the cause of the incident is still under investigation.
On Dec. 29 at noon, a light aircraft crashed in northern New South Wales, Australia, resulting in one death and one injury among the two occupants.
Boeing 737-800 Experiences Frequent Incidents
The crashed Jeju Air aircraft was a Boeing 737-800, one of the most frequently involved models in aviation incidents.
Statistics show that from 2006 to now, there have been 26 incidents involving the Boeing 737-800 over the past 18 years, with 10 resulting in fatalities and a total of 1,075 deaths.
This is the deadliest incident involving this model since it first experienced a serious accident in 2006.
The Boeing 737 is a twin-engine narrow-body aircraft, in service since 1968, with a total of 14 variants. The Boeing 737-800 series is commonly used by low-cost carriers for medium-haul routes, accommodating approximately 162 to 189 passengers.
To date, Boeing has delivered nearly 5,000 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with hundreds of airlines operating this model across North America, Europe, and Asia.
The Boeing 737-800 is the main aircraft type for Jeju Air, with 38 out of 40 aircraft in its fleet belonging to this model. The crashed aircraft was produced in 2009 and was approximately 15 years old.
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