The death toll in the South Korean plane crash rose to 179, killing all but two people aboard, The New York Times reported, citing fire officials at the Muan International Airport.
All passengers and crew members were accounted for as of Sunday evening local time, the Times reported, after two survivors were recovered from the wreckage earlier Sunday.
A Boeing 737-800 plane, operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air, departed from Bangkok, Thailand, and arrived at approximately 9 a.m. local time at Muan International Airport on Sunday.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held a briefing Sunday afternoon and reported that the control tower had warned of birds in the area just before landing. The pilot then requested a “mayday” signal, and the airplane went up in flames a couple of minutes later.
“It is presumed to have been a bird strike. Smoke came out of one of the engines and then it exploded,” one surviving crew member said in a witness report, Yonhap reported.
Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 had 181 people on board, including 175 passengers, 4 flight attendants and 2 pilots. The two surviving people were both crew members rescued from the back of the plane during the initial search, Yonhap reported.
Family and loved ones of flight passengers flooded the airport as they awaited answers on Sunday.
