All passengers and most of the crew onboard a Jeju Air flight have died after the plane crash-landed at an airport in South Korea on Sunday.

A total of 179 of the 181 people travelling on the Boeing 737-800 were killed, with just two survivors – both cabin staff – pulled from the burning wreckage.

The plane landed at Muan International Airport in the country’s south, skidding off the runway and crashing into a wall in a fiery explosion.

Flight 2216 had been returning from Bangkok, Thailand with six crew and 175 passengers, many of them holidaymakers.

An investigation into the cause is under way – with experts and officials pointing to a number of possible factors.

Experts say the construction of a concrete wall at the end of a runway was an ‘almost criminal’ error that led to the deaths of 179 people in a plane crash in South Korea.

The Jeju Air plane skidded off the runway in the town of Muan, 180 miles south of Seoul, slammed into a concrete barrier and burst into flames on Sunday after its landing gear apparently failed to deploy.

All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 were killed in one of South Korea’s worst aviation disasters, officials said.

Video of the plane’s approach show it hitting a bird, before it circled the runway and attempted to land with its flaps up. Experts believe this suggests the aircraft suffered hydraulic failure, which could have also prevented the landing gear from deploying.

Leading air safety expert David Learmount told Sky News that having a concrete wall at the end of the runway was ‘verging on criminal’ and said the collision with the wall was the ‘defining moment’ of the disaster.

He suggested that had the wall not been there, the plane would have instead hit a fence, slid over a road and likely stopped in a nearby field.

‘I think everybody would have been alive… the pilots might have suffered some damage going through the security fence or something like that. But I even suspect they might have survived,’ Mr Learmount said.

Airline pilots also chimed in, saying that the jet likely lost power on at least one engine and suffered a hydraulic failure after the plane was hit by a bird.

People stand as the wreckage of an aircraft lying on the ground after it went off the runway and crashed at Muan International Airport is pictured, in Muan, South Korea, December 30

Jeju Air flight 7C2216 is engulfed in flames as it slams into a wall following a crash after landing at Muan International Airport

Leading air safety expert David Learmount told Sky News that having a concrete wall (pictured in satellite image) at the end of the runway was ‘verging on criminal’ and said the collision with the wall was the ‘defining moment’ of the disaster

An unverified video grab reportedly of the Jeju Air plane shows a burst of fire coming out of the jet’s right engine supposedly showing the moment the bird struck

South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok pays tribute to the victims of the 29 December Jeju Air plane crash

Relatives of passengers of a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft gather at a make-shift shelter at Muan International Airport in Muan

Aviation expert David Learmount (pictured) suggested that had it not been for the concrete wall at the end of the runway at Muan International Airport, the tragedy may have been averted and the passengers saved

After abandoning a first landing attempt due to a loss of power, the pilots touched down on the runway at high speed on their second attempt – without extending the flaps and deploying speed brakes that would normally slow the plane down.

The thrust reverser, used to slow down the aircraft once on the ground, was only deployed on one engine.

While the flaps and landing ear are powered by the hydraulic system, they can be extended manually in an emergency.

Captain Denys Davydov, who flies a Boeing 737-800 for Ukraine International Airlines, told the Times: ‘It seems they had hydraulics to deploy the one reverser but no flaps or landing gear… As a pilot of the same plane, it’s very strange.’

Some experts said that a bird strike alone would not have crippled the landing gear.

Australian airline safety expert Geoffrey Dell said: ‘I’ve never seen a bird strike prevent the landing gear from being extended.’

Airline News editor Geoffrey Thomas said that bird strikes ‘typically don’t cause the loss of an airplane by themselves’ and questioned why firefighters didn’t attend to the aircraft as it was landing on the runway.

He said: ‘Why weren’t they in attendance when the plane touched down? And why did the aircraft touch down so far down the runway? And why was there a brick wall at the end of the runway?’

But South Korea’s deputy transport minister, Joo Jong-wan, dismissed concerns about having the concrete wall after the end of the runway, saying that both ends of the runway have ‘safety zones with green buffer areas before reaching the outer wall’, the Independent reports.

Black smoke emits from Jeju Air flight 7C2216 as it veers off the runway

The Boeing 737-800 was seen engulfed in a huge ball of fire after it skidded off the end of the runway and crashed into a concrete wall

Workers operate at the site of an aircraft that crashed after it went off the runway at Muan International Airport, in Muan, South Korea, December 30

Emergency workers inspect the wreckage of Jeju Air Flight 2216

He added that the airport was designed ‘according to standard aviation safety guidelines, even if the wall may appear closer than it actually is’.

However, aviation expert Sally Gethin told Sky News a bird strike could cause damage to the engine and the hydraulics to fail.

She said it was a ‘plausible explanation’ for causing a landing gear failure, adding that the pilots would have had to make ‘very split-second decisions’ in such a case.

‘leading to suspected bird ingestion into the engines’.

This comes as devastated family members of the crash victims are demanding answers. Jeon Je-young, whose daughter Mi-sook was one of 179 who died on board Jeju Airlines flight 2216, says he still cannot believe what happened. ‘When I saw the accident video, the plane seemed out of control,’ the 71-year-old father said. ‘The pilots probably had no choice but to do it. My daughter, who is only in her mid-40s, ended up like this. This is unbelievable.’ Jeon said the last time he saw his daughter was when she brought food and next year’s calendar to his house on December 21. Firefighters work at the wreckage site of the Jeju Air plane in Muan on December 30 The wreckage of the plane is seen above, as firefighters comb through debris, on December 30 Jeon Je-young, whose daughter Mi-sook died onboard Jeju Airlines flight 2216 questioned why the aircraft crashed into a wall after skidding off a runway Jeon shared his last emotional exchanges with his daughter on his mobile phone Firefighters search tangled wreckage at Muan International Airport An emergency worker looks at the wreckage of Saturday’s plane crash Mi-sook had been on her way home after travelling with friends to Bangkok for the Christmas holiday. She is survived by her husband and teenage daughter. Her father said: ‘She was almost home, so (she saw) no need to call the family (to leave any final message). She thought she was coming home. ‘By the time she took out her phone, the plane probably had crashed.’ Read More Five children including boy, three, are youngest victims of South Korea plane crash The flight, arriving from the Thai capital with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was seen skidding down the runway with no visible landing gear before crashing into navigation equipment and a wall in an explosion of flames and debris.

Only two people – both crew members – survived the tragedy and were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries after being pulled from the burning wreckage. Authorities revealed the names of some of those killed in the crash, triggering grief and rage among the passengers’ families gathered in the airport’s arrival area. Crime scene investigators collected DNA from families to run tests to identify the victims. Mi-sook was identified by her fingerprints, and her family is looking for a funeral home near her town of Gwangju to transport her body there. Mi-sook was identified by her fingerprints, and her family is looking for a funeral home near her town of Gwangju to transport her body there. Her grieving father questioned the decision of pilots to attempt to land on the hard runway rather than ditching in water.

Family members of a victim of the Jeju Air plane crash grieve at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, on December 29 Fire and smoke rising from the tail section of the aircraft. All passengers on board were declared dead, while two cabin crew members miraculously survived the tragedy Firefighters use an excavator to lift burnt seats from the wreckage of the aircraft A person rescued from the wreckage is wheeled on a stretcher from an ambulance to a medical facility He said: ‘The water near the airport is not deep. There are softer fields than this cement runway. Why couldn’t the pilot land there instead?’ Fire officials reported that the impact of the crash had left the plane ‘almost completely destroyed’. Read More Heartbreaking last words of South Korean plane crash passenger onboard doomed flight Yeom Dong-bu, a firefighter dispatched to the scene said: ‘Through collision twice and explosion, most of the passengers were thrown off the plane, though two crew members luckily survived at the tail end.’ A South Korean transport official earlier said that the plane had attempted to land but was told by the air traffic control to hold off after giving a bird strike warning. The pilot called a Mayday two minutes later and was granted permission to land from the opposite direction. Experts cautioned that air accidents are usually caused by multiple contributing factors and it can take months to piece together the sequence of events in and outside the plane. Jeju Airlines chief executive Kim E-bae gave a deep bow with other senior company officials as he apologised to bereaved families and said he feels ‘full responsibility’ for the incident in a televised news conference. Family members of a victim of the Jeju Air plane crash grieve at a temporary shelter at Muan International Airport A firefighter and a dog work near the deadly crash site that killed all 175 passengers and four crew members He added the company had not identified any mechanical problems with the aircraft following regular checks and that he would wait for the results of government investigations into the cause of the incident.

King Charles and Queen Camilla paid tribute to the 179 people killed saying they were ‘profoundly saddened to learn of the horrific air accident at Muan’ and the families and loved ones of the victims were in their prayers.

A period of national mourning until January 4 was declared by South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok. Under global aviation rules, South Korea will lead a civil investigation, involving the US National Transportation Safety Board as the aircraft was American-made and built.

Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University, said the evidence suggested the plane had encountered a flock of birds

A total of 179 people — 85 women, 84 men and 10 others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable — died in the fire, the South Korean fire agency said. Emergency workers pulled two people, both crew members, to safety. Health officials said they are conscious and not in life-threatening condition.

The Jeju Air plane crashed while landing in the town of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul. The Transport Ministry said the plane was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet that had arrived from Bangkok and that the crash happened at 9:03 a.m.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A passenger plane skidded off a runway at a South Korean airport Sunday, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into flames after its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy. All but two of the 181 people on board died in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.

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Among the 177 bodies so far found, officials have so far identified 88 of them, the fire agency said. The passengers were predominantly South Korean, as well as two Thai nationals. Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Seoul received confirmation from South Korean authorities that the two Thai passengers were among the fatalities.

The fire agency deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the blaze. About 1,570 firefighters, police officers, soldiers and other officials were also sent to the site, according to the fire agency and transport ministry.

Footage of the crash aired by South Korean television channels showed the plane skidding across the airstrip at high speed, apparently with its landing gear still closed, overrunning the runway and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the facility, triggering an explosion. Other local TV stations aired footage showing thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the plane, which was engulfed in flames.

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Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, told a televised briefing that the plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail assembly remaining recognizable among the wreckage. Lee said that workers were looking into various possibilities about what caused the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds, Lee said.

Transport Ministry officials later said their early assessment of communication records show the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land and gave its pilot permission to land in a different area. The pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before the plane overshot the end of the runway and skidded across a buffer zone before hitting the wall, the officials said.

Senior Transport Ministry official Joo Jong-wan said workers have retrieved the flight data and cockpit voice recorders of the plane’s black box, which will be examined by government experts investigating the cause of the crash and fire. He said it may take months for investigators to complete their probe. The runway at the Muan airport will be closed until Jan. 1, the ministry said.

Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed deep condolences to the families of those affected by the accident in a post on social platform X. Paetongtarn said she ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide assistance immediately.

Kerati Kijmanawat, the director of Airports of Thailand, confirmed in a statement that Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 departed from Suvarnabhumi Airport with no reports of abnormal conditions with the aircraft or on the runway.

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Jeju Air in a statement expressed its “deep apology” over the crash and said it will do its “utmost to manage the aftermath of the accident.”

In a televised news conference, Kim E-bae, Jeju Air’s president, bowed deeply with other senior company officials as he apologized to bereaved families and said he feels “full responsibility” for the incident. Kim said the company hadn’t identified any mechanical problems with the aircraft following regular checkups and that he would wait for the results of government investigations into the cause of the incident.

Family members wailed as officials announced the names of some victims at a lounge in the Muan airport.

Boeing said in a statement on X it was in contact with Jeju Air and is ready to support the company in dealing with the crash.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” Boeing said.

The incident came as South Korea is embroiled into a huge political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment. Last Friday, South Korean lawmakers impeached acting President Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, leading Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok to take over.

Choi, who traveled to the site in Muan, called for officials to employ all available resources to find the missing and identify the victims as soon as possible. The government declared Muan a special disaster zone to provide assistance to the families of victims and designated a weeklong national mourning period through Saturday.

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Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, presided over an emergency meeting between senior presidential staff to discuss the crash and reported the details to Choi. Yoon expressed condolences to the victims in a Facebook posting.

The Muan crash is one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history. The last time South Korea suffered a large-scale air disaster was in 1997, when a Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines plane crash-landed in San Francisco, killing three and injuring approximately 200.

Sunday’s accident was also one of the worst landing mishaps since a July 2007 crash that killed all 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground when an Airbus A320 slid off a slick airstrip in Sao Paulo and collided with a nearby building, according to data compiled by the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group aimed at improving air safety. In 2010, 158 people died when an Air India Express aircraft overshot a runway in Mangalore, India, and plummeted into a gorge before erupting into flames, according to the safety foundation. World leaders expressed their sympathies as South Korea dealt with the tragedy.

During his Angelus prayer in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said he joins in “prayer for the survivors and the dead.” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of many precious lives” in a message released through Tokyo’s Foreign Ministry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that “each life lost is an immeasurable tragedy” and that he extends his “heartfelt condolences” on behalf of Ukrainian people and himself.

Associated Press journalists Bobby Caina Calvan in New York and Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul and Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.