All 181 passengers and crew aboard a passenger jet that crashed upon landing in South Korea on Sunday morning are presumed dead except for two people rescued from the wreckage, authorities said.
The two survivors have been described as a male crew member from the flight, who is receiving care for non-life-threatening injuries in an intensive care unit, and a female crew member who is recovering with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Health Ministry officials on Sunday evening.
Jeju Air Flight 2216 was landing at Muan International Airport around 9 a.m. local time when the plane went off the runway and crashed into a wall.
There were a total of 175 passengers and six crew members aboard the Boeing 737 aircraft, which had taken off from Bangkok, according to the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport. The official death toll, provided by the National Fire Agency, was at first conservative but climbed steadily in the hours after the crash.
Authorities explained that they are attempting to speed up the identification process for the victims. Although 141 out of 179 people have been identified through fingerprint identification and DNA control, 38 have not yet been identified.
In some cases, the bodies are so badly damaged that fingerprints cannot be sensed. Additionally, there are not records available by which to compare fingerprints for minors, which means that familial DNA comparison is necessary.
The transport ministry was on the scene investigating the cause of the crash, and details of what happened were beginning to come into focus. Prior to the plane’s crash landing, the control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the ministry said. About a minute after that warning, a pilot sent a mayday distress signal, after which the tower issued permission for the aircraft to land, the ministry said.
According to the Air and Railway Investigation Committee, the aircraft’s “black boxes” were recovered from the wreckage. The plane’s flight data recorder was found partially damaged and its cockpit voice recorder was collected intact, officials said.
Decrypting the FDR data could take about a month, according to officials. However, if the damage to the FDR is severe, it may have to be sent to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board for decoding, which could take more than six months, officials said.
Video from the scene at the time of the crash appears to show the landing gear was up when the plane touched down, possibly indicating some sort of malfunction, and it also appears the plane landed at a high speed. Videos taken at the scene showed flames and a thick column of dark smoke at the crash site.
As of 1 p.m. local time, authorities said the plane had completely burned. A temporary morgue was being set up at the airport.
By about 8 p.m., the official death toll had climbed to 176 people, the National Fire Agency said. Eighty-three of the dead were women and 82 were men, the agency said, adding that another 11 bodies remained unidentified. According to the flight manifest, there were five children under 10 years old on the flight, the youngest of them 3 years old.
Initially, there were conflicting reports on the number of people rescued.
United States President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday afternoon that he and first lady Jill Biden were “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life” in the crash.
“As close allies, the American people share deep bonds of friendship with the South Korean people and our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by this tragedy. The United States stands ready to provide any necessary assistance,” the statement continued.
“We deeply apologize to all those affected by the incident at Muan Airport,” Jeju Air said in a notice posted in English on its website. “We will make every effort to resolve the situation. We sincerely regret the distress caused.”
The website’s landing page replaced Jeju Air’s logotype, which is usually orange, with an all-black version.
The NTSB posted on X Sunday that it is “leading a team of U.S. investigators (NTSB, Boeing and FAA) to assist the Republic of Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB)” with their investigation of the crash, adding that the ARAIB would release any information about the investigation “per international protocols.”
Boeing was in contact with Jeju Air regarding the crash and was “standing ready to support them,” a Boeing spokesperson told ABC News earlier.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” the spokesperson said.
Muan, a city of roughly 90,000 people, is located in southwest South Korea.
