South Korea special: Plane crash kills 179

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Paul Moss and in this special edition recorded on Sunday 29 December at 1230 GMT. We have the latest from Moan Airport in South Korea, where a plane has crashed on landing killing nearly 180 people. The country's acting president has declared a period of national mourning. We also hear from a pilot who tells us why the crew may have had no chance to save the stricken aircraft.

Plus, we ask what this accident means for South Korea, a nation already in the midst of turmoil.

Looking at footage of the crash at South Korea's Muayen Airport, it seems clear the plane was still intact when it touched down. But it's also clear that something had gone terribly wrong with its undercarriage. The fuselage scrapes along the runway. The pilots apparently unable to keep control. And within seconds, you see the Boeing 737 strike a wall and burst into flames. 181 people were on board the flight from Bangkok.

Most of them thought to be holiday makers who'd gone for a Christmas break. It was left to an airport official to read out a list of the dead to family members who'd gathered there.

Only two people escaped from the burning plane, making this the deadliest air accident in South Korea, and establishing exactly what happened may be a challenge, given the extensive damage the aircraft suffered. But there is already speculation about what went wrong. As we heard from the chief of the local Moan Fire Station, Lee Jong Hyun when he spoke at a news conference.

We are presuming the cause of the accidents to be a bird strike or deteriorating weather conditions and the exact cause will be determined by a further forensic and joint investigation. As a person who's seen the site, I can only say, I'm sad. Our correspondent, Jim McKenzie, is at Moan International Airport and sent this report.

We're at the perimeter of the airport now and this wall just behind us is where the plane crashed when it overshot the runway and just poking up behind us you can see the blackened charred tail of the plane. This is the only part of the aircraft that is now still intact. The rest is so fractured, so splintered that the fire service says it is unidentifiable.

But just over to the right of me here in the fields, we have investigators combing the grasses, looking for any remnants of the plane and the passengers. This is the deadliest plane crash that has ever taken place on South Korean soil. It is assumed now that all the passengers have died. The only two people who have been rescued from the plane were two flight attendants who were sitting at the very back and were able to be taken off quickly, and they have been taken to hospital.

The cause of this crash is still unknown. It is reported it is thought that the plane's landing gears fail to come down. There are also reports that just before landing a bird got into the plane's engine and caused a fire there, although we don't have this confirmed and there are still big questions about what went wrong.

Jeju air is Korea's most popular budget airline. It flies to destinations all across Asia and it is a relatively safe airline. This is thought to be the only fatal accident it has had in the almost 20 years it's been operating.

And for Koreans, this is just one shock after another. The country is going through an acute political crisis at the moment after the president was ousted for trying to impose martial law here. And so the acting president, he's only been in office now in charge for 48 hours. So this is a major test for him. He has come to the airport now this afternoon where he is overseeing the recovery operations and offering support to the bereaved families.

Jean Mackenzie, also at the airport, was Yuna Ku of the BBC's Korean service. She saw hundreds gathered there, still clinging to hope. Even though the authorities have announced there are more than 170 deaths confirmed among 181 passengers, most of them still remain unidentified. So the family here are deeply in sorrow.

However, still trying to hear the updates from the authorities. Most of the families are pending nights here waiting for the updates and you can also see the authorities spreading out the foods and drinks to the families. However, most of the families do not seem interested in it and even from far away you can hear many families crying and screaming and falling down to the floor.

Eunuchu. The plane was one of Boeing's 737-800 aircraft, and the company has said it's in contact with JU Air and stands ready to support them. It's said in a statement that it extends its deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the incident.

Kim Ebei, the CEO of the airline Jju, spoke at a press conference. He and his colleagues bowed in a sign of contrition, although they also seemed to be insisting that the plane itself was not at fault.

I would like to express my deepest condolences and apologies to the passengers who have passed away due to this accident and to their family members. Jeju Air will make every effort to resolve the situation quickly and to support the family members of the passengers. In addition, we will do our best with the government to find out the cause of the accident.

We have serviced this aircraft in accordance with the maintenance program, and there was no sign of anything unusual with this plane." It may be unclear why the Boeing 737's undercarriage wasn't properly lowered when the plane touched down. But whatever the cause, a serious accident was almost inevitable once that happened, according to a former 737 pilot, Alistair Rosenshine, who spoke to my colleague Lucy Gray.

It's near impossible to control an aircraft on the landing roll as the speed reduces with the gear up. So that would explain why the aircraft skidded off to one side. The reports of a bird strike could.

results in a worst case scenario and loss of hydraulics as well if both engines are severely damaged. But what happened prior to the video of this aircraft landing, we don't fully know yet. They have already recovered either the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder. They were shown as two black boxes.

And there are reports that they've recovered those, so it is fairly certain that they'll be able to get down to the bottom of this and find out what happened and hopefully try and prevent it from happening again. But bird strikes, if it was a bird strike, they are unpredictable. They can happen pretty much anywhere in the world. And as a pilot, what are you able to do if you don't have any landing gear in terms of any kind of control of the aircraft?

Well, first of all, the aircraft will slide normally if the gear doesn't come down. That isn't the issue. The issue will be the actual touchdown of the runway. So what you want to do is choose an airfield with as long a runway as possible. The other thing is there's a time frame here. If the pilots had lost power on their engines due to that strike, then there'll be no time at all. They'll be coming down and landing pretty much immediately. The other thing is you don't want any rescue vehicles anywhere near the runway.

during this landing of the gear up aircraft because the aircraft will be difficult to control. There's a very strong likelihood it will depart the runway in other words go off to the right or the left. It sounds pretty catastrophic during the flying phase of the flight in addition to the disaster during the landing. I mean, watching the video, it looks like it made a successful touchdown and that they are traveling down the runway and that looks like the pilots have done a very good job up to that point and then

As the aircraft slows, they will no longer have control, directional control of the aircraft, and so they really are in the lap of the gods at that point.

Alistair Rosenshine. South Korea is obviously still digesting what happened. But this is a country which was already in turmoil. There's been the declaration of martial law by one president. Street protests only this weekend demanding that his stand-in successor resign. And there's Donald Trump about to take office. Having said South Korea must pay for the nearly 30,000 US soldiers stationed there. Or else he's hinted, they might come home.

The death of so many people in an airplane crash would obviously be a blow to any country. But this accident has come at a particularly difficult time for South Korea, as Hyung-Jung Kim, a BBC journalist in the capital's soul, told me.

South Korean society is in deep shock right now, and there was an economic and political crisis happening right now, and because of this accident, all of the South Korean people are mourning. And the people are also considering not to organize the ongoing protest, and they are now canceling all the rallies. And then the decision was made to join in mourning and paying tribute to the victims of the Jesuit air passenger plane crash. And also the authorities are also considering canceling new year events that was organized for the end of the year.

Hyunjun Kim.

And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by James Piper, the producer was Isabella Jewell. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Paul Moss. Until next time, goodbye.

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