By PERKIN AMALARAJ and STEPHEN M. LEPORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
An eyewitness of a South Korean jet plane crash has described the horrifying moment they knew a jet engine had exploded.
Just two people – both crew members, one male and one female – are believed to have survived among the 181 people on board the Jeju Air flight, a Boeing 737-800. Government officials have confirmed an official death toll of 179.
Kim Yong-cheol, 70, told Yonhap News that he was staying by the airport and noticed something was wrong.
‘I saw the plane descending and thought it was about to land when I noticed a flash of light,’ Cho said. ‘Then there was a loud bang followed by smoke in the air, and then I heard a series of explosions.’
Kim said the plane missed the initial landing before circling back and making the final fatal attempt.
The Jeju Air flight was returning from Bangkok when the horror unfolded at the airport, the Yonhap news agency reported.
The South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is investigating the possibility the crash was caused by ‘contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear’ as the plane attempted to land at the airport in the country’s southwest, though no official verdict has been given.
Ju Jong-wan, a director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said that a mayday alert was sent out one minute after air traffic control warned of a possible bird strike. The plane crashed two minutes later.
Terrifying footage broadcast by local MBC-TV showed the moment the aircraft started to show some sort of explosion out of one side as it neared the airport.
A plane carrying 181 people has crashed into a wall at at Muan International Airport in South Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday
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