The most serious accident ever to have occurred in South Korea and, globally, the worst of 2024: this is what happened around 9 am local time today, December 29, at Muan International Airport, South Korea, when a B-737/800 aircraft registration HL8088 (flight 2216 operated by the local low-cost airline Jeju Air) coming from Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi airport, after a belly landing it went off the runway, first crashing into the structure containing the ILS locator antenna, and then into the airport's perimeter wall.

An explosion followed and then a violent fire that left no escape for 177 of the 181 people on board. At the time of writing, two are survivors, crewmembers who according to local sources have suffered "medium to serious" injuries, and two are missing. Among the passengers, 5 of the victims were children under the age of ten.

Among the most probable causes of the tragedy, in addition to the malfunction of the landing gear, there is that of a bird-strike, or the ingestion of birds by the engines: according to a spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, in fact, the control tower, just before landing, had warned flight 2216 of the risk of impact-ingestion of birds caused by the presence of a flock of birds. About a minute later, the pilot of the plane issued a "Mayday". The airliner, as can also be seen from the videos posted on-line, performed a belly landing, or landing on its belly (without the landing gear) in the opposite direction to both the initial approach and the planned landing direction.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Transport also reported that the black boxes had been recovered and will be examined by government technicians. South Korea's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, declared a period of national mourning until January 4. For his part, Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologized for the incident and expressed his condolences by bowing deeply during a televised briefing; he said that the plane had no history of accidents and there had been no signs of malfunction. "The airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the grieving families its top priority", the CEO stressed.

To deal with the emergency at the airport, a task force of 1,500 people has been deployed. The airport is expected to remain closed to air traffic until January 1, 2025.

Below: the dynamics of the accident (The Strait Times - Video by Lee Geun-Young), and the condolences of Kim E-bae, CEO of the airline, during a press conference (Reuters Video):