179 dead after jet crashes, explodes in S Korea

2 OF 181 OCCUPANTS OF JEJU AIR PLANE SURVIVE IN COUNTRY'S DEADLIEST AVIATION DISASTER; BIRD STRIKE, LANDING-GEAR FAILURE IN FOCUS

A Boeing Co 737-800 aircraft operated by Jeju Air Co crashed and caught fire after skidding down an airport runway in South Korea, killing most of the 181 people on board in one of the country's worst-ever aviation disasters.

Flight 2216 was carrying 175 passengers and six crew from Bangkok to Muan International Airport in the country's south, according to officials. Some 179 people were killed, with only a pair of flight attendants surviving, Yonhap reported.

The pilot issued a mayday emergency call minutes after the control tower warned of a bird strike. He aborted the landing, started a go-around and switched direction on the runway in his second attempt.

The single-aisle plane touched down without its landing gear deployed, sliding down the runway at high speed before hitting a wall at the end of the strip and exploding into flames.

The accident is the deadliest passenger airline disaster in South Korea to date.

Investigators, who managed to retrieve the two flight recorders from the wreckage, will seek to understand how a possible bird strike and the landing-gear failure might be connected, and why the aircraft didn't come to a standstill before smashing into the embankment.

The Boeing 737 plane involved in the crash is considered a reliable workhorse that passed routine maintenance checks, in a country with deep expertise for aircraft servicing.

The Jeju Air plane that crashed in southwestern South Korea was a Boeing 737-800, a model that is used widely around the world.