The Jeju Air disaster that occurred at Muan Airport on the 29th is expected to record the highest number of casualties since the crash accident at Guam Airport in the United States in 1997.
In August 1997, a Korean Air plane crashed into a hill while attempting to land at Guam Airport, resulting in the deaths of 228 people. The Korean Air passenger airplane bombing in 1987 over Myanmar waters followed, claiming 115 lives.
In 1989, a Korean Air passenger plane traveling from Seoul to Libya crashed while attempting to land at Tripoli Airport, resulting in the deaths of 80 people and injuries to 139 others. The 1993 accident of an Asiana Airlines passenger plane that collided with a hill in Haenam, South Jeolla Province, while approaching Mokpo Airport, killing 66 people and injuring 44, is also considered a major airplane disaster.
In more recent times, an Asiana Airlines passenger plane collided while landing at San Francisco International Airport in the United States in 2013, killing three Chinese students. There were 181 injuries. In 1999, a Korean Air passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Shanghai Airport in China, killing eight people and injuring 41.
Due to the increased risk of accidents during takeoff and landing, the industry refers to the '3 minutes after takeoff and 8 minutes before landing' as the 'devil's 11 minutes.'
In the case of 'bird strike,' suspected as a cause of the accident that day, sparks flew when birds were sucked into the engine of a T'way Air passenger plane while landing at Incheon International Airport on Jan. 10, causing the airport fire department to respond.
At around 9:03 a.m. that day, at Muan Airport, Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, which departed from Bangkok, Thailand, veered off the runway during landing and collided with an outer wall. As a result of the accident, there was an explosion followed by a fire. The aircraft burned so severely after the collision that only the tail section remained intact, and currently only two of the 181 people on board have been rescued. The South Jeolla Fire Department noted that it was 'virtually in the recovery stage.'