A devastating plane crash occurred on the morning of December 29, 2024, at Muan Airport in South Korea. Jeju Air flight 2216, a Boeing 737-800 traveling from Bangkok to Muan, was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members at the time of the accident.
Video footage released by local media shows the aircraft skidding down the runway without its landing gear deployed before colliding with a wall in a powerful, fiery explosion. As of this writing, at least 177 people have been confirmed dead, with two crew members rescued from the tail section of the burning wreckage. The rest of the plane was destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire, leaving much of it unrecognizable. Rescue teams continue to search the crash site and surrounding areas for possible survivors. Witnesses at the scene reported the air was thick with the harrowing smell of burning jet fuel and blood. Distraught family members of the passengers gathered at the airport’s arrivals area, demanding updates on their loved ones and mourning those who have been confirmed dead. A temporary morgue has been set up due to the high number of fatalities.
Preliminary information from South Korea’s Ministry of Transport reveals that the airport’s control tower issued a warning about a potential bird strike near the runway six minutes before the crash. Two minutes later, a distress signal was received, and four minutes after that, the aircraft crashed into a wall at the end of the runway while attempting an emergency landing without its landing gear. Both black boxes—the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder—have been recovered from the crash site. Investigators are focusing on a potential bird strike as a likely cause of the landing gear malfunction, along with weather conditions. However, the exact cause will only be determined following a full investigation by government authorities.
All flights to and from Muan Airport have been canceled, and the airport will remain closed to all traffic until January 1, 2025.
This tragic incident marks the first accident for Jeju Air, a South Korean low-cost carrier founded in 2005. The aircraft involved, manufactured in 2009, had no previously reported mechanical issues. South Korea’s Ministry of Transport has called this the country’s worst aviation disaster involving a South Korean airline since the 1997 Korean Air crash near Guam, which claimed more than 200 lives.
