A plane veered off the runway, hit a fence and caught fire at an airport in southern South Korea, killing at least 62 people, emergency officials said.
The National Fire Agency said the fire was almost put out and rescue officials were trying to remove passengers from the Jeju Air passenger plane at the airport in the southern city of Muan.
The agency confirmed the death toll and said emergency workers had pulled out two people — one passenger and one crew member. It said it deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire.
Sunday’s flight with 181 people on board was returning from Bangkok.
The emergency office said its landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned.
Yonhap news agency reported the plane veered off the runway and collided with a fence. Emergency officials said they were examining the exact cause of the fire.
Footage of the crash aired by YTN television showed the skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the facility.
The transport ministry said the incident happened at 9.03am local time and its passengers include two Thai nationals.
Local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the plane engulfed with flame.
Before heading to the scene, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, who assumed responsibility after the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol and acting President Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, ordered officials to employ all available resources to rescue the passengers and crew, according to Yonhap news agency.
Mr Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, will preside over an emergency meeting between senior presidential staff on Sunday to discuss the crash.
Thailand’s prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed deep condolences to the families of those affected through a post on social platform X, saying she had ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide assistance immediately.
The last time South Korea suffered a large-scale air disaster was in 1997 when an Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.
