First the flames, then some explosions. This is what some witnesses told the Yonap agency regarding the plane crash occurred this morning in South Korea. The Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 skidded during landing and crashed into a fence at Muan International Airport, about 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul, at around 9:07 this morning. Videos broadcast by local television stations show the plane attempting to land without its landing gear. Yoo Jae-yong, 41, who lives near the airport, said he saw a spark on the plane’s right wing before the crash.
“I was just telling my family that there was a problem with the plane when I heard a loud explosion,” he said. Another witness, identified only by his surname Cho, said he “saw the plane go down and I thought it was about to land when I noticed a flash of light,” Cho said.
“Then there was a loud bang followed by smoke and I heard a series of explosions.” Another witness, Kim Yong-cheol, 70, said the plane failed to land on the first attempt, so he got up to try a second time shortly before the crash, saying he heard a “scraping” sound. metallic” twice about 5 minutes before the crash. Authorities believe that the failure of the landing gear, probably due to an impact with a flock of birds, may have caused the accident.