South Korea launches investigation into fatal Jeju Air plane crash

A week of national mourning has been declared in South Korea after a passenger plane crashed killing 179 people, the youngest of them just three years old, ITV News Correspondent Chloe Keedy reports

South Korean officials have launched an investigation to determine what caused a plane crash that killed 179 people.

Footage of the crash shows the Boeing 737-800 plane skidding across the runway with its landing gear seemingly still closed, before colliding with a concrete wall. Thick, black smoke billowed from the wreckage, which was engulfed in flames.

Emergency officials in Muan said the plane's landing gear is thought to have malfunctioned.

The country’s worst aviation disaster in decades killed all but two of the 181 passengers and crew, including a three-year-old. The two survivors, both crew members, were pulled from the plane's tail section — the only part that was still recognisable after the crash.

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Acting South Korean president Choi Sang-mok presided over a task force meeting about the crash on Monday, and instructed the Transport Ministry and police to launch investigations into its cause.

Choi also ordered the ministry to implement an emergency review of the country’s overall aircraft operation systems.

South Korea's Transport Ministry said on Monday the government plans to conduct safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 jetliners operated by the country’s airlines.

Sally Gethin, a Travel and Aviation Expert, discusses the plane crash that killed 179 people in South Kores after it veered off the runway and crashed.

Ministry officials said they will also look into whether the Muan airport’s localiser — a concrete fence housing a set of antennas designed to guide aircraft safely during landings — should have been made with lighter materials that would break more easily upon impact.

Video of the crash indicated that the pilots did not deploy flaps or slats to slow the aircraft, suggesting a possible hydraulic failure, and they did not manually lower the landing gear, suggesting they did not have time.

The control tower issued a warning about birds to the Jeju Air plane shortly before it intended to land and gave the crew permission to land in a different area. It said the plane’s pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before the crash.

Investigators retrieved the jet’s black boxes, but it may take months to complete the investigation into the crash, Joo, the Transport Ministry official, told reporters.

The Muan crash is South Korea's deadliest aviation disaster since 1997, when a Korean Airlines plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.

Sir Keir Starmer and King Charles were among world leaders to pay their condolences to the families and loved ones of the 179 people killed.

The investigation comes as the South Korean government is grappling with a leadership vacuum following the recent successive impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s top two officials, triggered by Yoon’s brief martial law introduction earlier this month.

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