At least 85 killed in S Korea as plane crashes on landing at Muan airport

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The crash occurred as the Jeju Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, landed at Muan International Airport in South Korea.

At least 120 people have been killed when a passenger plane caught fire after skidding off a runway and crashing at an airport in South Korea’s Muan city, the country’s National Fire Agency said.

The accident occurred on Sunday at 9.03am local time (00: 03 GMT) as the Jeju Air flight, carrying 175 passengers and six crew from the Thai capital Bangkok, landed at Muan International Airport located about 289km (179 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul.

The National Fire Agency confirmed that 120 people – 57 women, 54 men and nine others – have been killed, and two people have been rescued – both crew members. The fire that engulfed the plane has been extinguished, the agency said.

Citing fire agency officials, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said that hopes are fading for survivors.

“There seems to have been some kind of malfunction with the landing gear and images which have been on the media here do appear to show the plane landing on its belly, skidding along the runway, followed then by a huge explosion,” Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, said.

“Eyewitness accounts have talked then about a series of explosions and certainly images that we have been seeing have shown a catastrophic fire,” he said.

The plane, a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet, was reported to be carrying two Thai passengers and the rest were believed to be South Koreans.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has expressed deep condolences to the families of the crash victims.

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been ordered to investigate if Thai passengers were on the plane and to provide “assistance immediately”, the prime minister said in a post on social media.

One photo shared by local media showed thick clouds of black smoke coming out of the plane. Another showed the tail section of the jet engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby.

The Yonhap news agency reports that the crash is believed to have been caused by “contact with b