South Korea Jet Crash Kills 179

Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air skidded, slammed into barrier; 2 survive

- Dasl Yoon, Timothy W. Martin and Andrew Tangel

International investigators worked to pinpoint what caused the fiery crash of a South Korean passenger plane that killed nearly all of the 181 people on board, in one of the deadliest aviation disasters in years.

The aircraft skidded off the runway, collided with a concrete barrier and burst into flames as it attempted to land Sunday at an airport in Muan County, in the country's southwest, just after 9 a.m. local time. The plane, operated by South Korea's Jeju Air, was a Boeing 737-800, a workhorse of commercial air travel.

Shortly before landing, the control tower warned of a possible bird strike and the Jeju Air pilots issued a mayday. Aviation safety experts said a severe bird strike could disable both engines as well as mechanical systems used to lower landing gear. Videos showed the jet's landing gear wasn't deployed as the plane skidded down the runway.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it was leading a team of U.S. investigators that included representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, which certified the aircraft, and Boeing. The safety board will be assisting officials from South Korea in their probe.

The black boxes have been recovered from the plane, and investigators plan to sift through flight data and cockpit voice recorders for answers.

Once the blaze was extinguished, all that remained visible of the Boeing 737 was the tail of the aircraft-with a single charred wing angled to the sky.

There were just two survivors: a pair of flight attendants. One recalled buckling into a seat at the rear of the plane and touching ground before losing consciousness, according to South Korea's semiofficial Yonhap News Agency, citing local hospital officials.

"What happened?" the flight attendant asked a doctor, Yonhap reported. The attendant sustained a fractured left shoulder and head injuries but was conscious. The other flight attendant was transferred to a hospital.