A Jeju Air flight skidded off a runway in South Korea and collided with a concrete fence, killing at least 177 people, the Associated Press reported, citing the country's National Fire Agency (NFA).
The Yonhap News Agency attributed the devastating crash, one of the worst in the country's history, to malfunctioning landing gear.
Jeju Air, a low-cost airline in South Korea, was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members in the Boeing 737-800 when the incident occurred Sunday morning local time at Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Jeolla Province, roughly 180 miles south of Seoul.
At least 177 people — 84 women, 82 men and 11 others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable — died in the fire, the fire agency said.
The Jeju Air plane that crashed in southwestern South Korea was a Boeing 737-800, a model that is used widely around the world.
There are about 28,000 passenger planes in service globally, according to Cirium, an aviation data provider. About 15 percent, or 4,400, are Boeing 737-800s. The plane belongs to the company’s Next-Generation 737 family of jets, the precursor to the more modern 737 Max, which was involved in two fatal accidents more than five years ago that led to a global grounding of the Max fleet.
Nearly 200 airlines use the 737-800, according to Cirium, including five in South Korea: Jeju Air, T’way Air, Jin air, Eastar Jet and Korean Air. The plane is popular in Asia, Europe and North America, and Boeing has delivered about 5,000 to customers since 1998.
“The plane in question is very safe and has a good safety record,” said Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of engineering at the University of Southern California who has studied the safety history of the Boeing 737 line.
The age of the global fleet of 737-800 planes ranges from about 5 years old to more than 27 years old. A well-maintained passenger jet can fly 20 to 30 years or even longer. According to the flight tracking website Flightradar24, the plane that crashed was 15 years old. Ryanair in Europe was the first airline to operate the aircraft, which was leased to Jeju Air in 2017 by SMBC Aviation Capital, according to Cirium.
Officials said they were investigating the cause of the crash, including the possibility that a bird strike led to a landing gear malfunction.
Boeing said in a statement on Sunday that it was in contact with Jeju Air and was ready to help the airline.
Bird strikes are not uncommon in aviation. In some cases, they have resulted in cracked windshields. Some airports deploy falcons and take other measures to keep their skies clear of birds. Muan International Airport, where the crash occurred, uses measures such as playing audio of distress calls to disperse birds as well as shooting them, according to the Korean Office of Civil Aviation.
Mr. Meshkati said that the landing gear of the 737-800 line is well designed and has a history of reliability, though poor upkeep could result in it not deploying correctly. “Maintenance is really one of the most important causes of aviation accidents,” he said.
But Mr. Meshkati and other aviation experts cautioned against rushing to judgment about such incidents. Crashes are often caused by multiple factors, which can take years to uncover through in-depth investigations.
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