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A passenger plane skidded off a runway at a South Korean airport on Sunday, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into flames after its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy.

- Associated Press

SEOUL: All but two of the 181 people on board died in one of the country's worst aviation disasters, and the world's most fatal plane crash since 2015.

The Jeju Air plane crashed while landing in the town of Muan, about 290km 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 9.03am.

A total of 179 people - 85 females, 84 males 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 believed to be at the rear of the cabin at the time of the crash, to safety. Health officials said they are conscious and not in life-threatening condition.

Among the 177 bodies found so far, officials have identified 88, the fire agency said. The passengers were predominantly South Korean, as well as two Thai nationals.