Plane crash at airport in South Korea kills 179

Distraught family members gathered at Muan international airport in South Korea yesterday after a plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok crashed, killing all but two people onboard, in the country's worst domestic civil aviation disaster.

- Justin McCurry Tokyo Raphael Rashid Seoul Angelique Chrisafis

Officials said all 175 passengers and four of the six crew members died when the Boeing 737-800 attempted an emergency landing, smashed into a wall and burst into flames at 9am local time at the airport, about 180 miles south-west of Seoul.

Two flight attendants who survived are being treated in hospital. One was in intensive care with fractures to his ribs, shoulder blade and spine, said Ju Woong, the director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul hospital. The man told doctors he "woke up to find [himself] rescued".

A stench of jet fuel hung over the airport last night and scattered plane seats, suitcases and bits of wreckage were visible close to the fuselage of Jeju Air flight 2216, which had been carrying mainly Korean passengers returning from winter holidays, as well as two Thai travellers.

Footage of the crash showed the aircraft skidding along the runway and veering off across a buffer zone before striking a concrete barrier at high speed and bursting into flames.

A local fire official said the crash could have been caused by a bird strike and weather conditions, but the exact cause was not yet known.

By late afternoon, floodlights illuminated the twisted wreckage as a huge yellow crane lifted the fuselage and officials continued the search and rescue mission.

Inside the airport terminal, more than 100 family members gathered to receive updates about their loved ones, many looking stunned. When a fire chief told families that most passengers were presumed dead, the room erupted in wails of grief.

"Is there absolutely no chance of survival?" one family member asked.

The fire chief could only bow his head and reply: "I'm so sorry, but that's what it's looking like." One woman was carried away on a stretcher, apparently having passed out from shock.