Fire and smoke rise from the tail section of a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft after the plane crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on 29 December 2024. Photo: AFP / YONHAP
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is not aware of any New Zealanders on the plane that crashed in South Korea killing 179 people on board.
Just two people survived the crash at Muan International Airport. Experts were questioning initial suggestions that a bird strike might have brought down the Jeju Air flight.
"We are not aware of any New Zealanders involved in this incident," an MFAT spokesperson said.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters posted his condolences on X on Sunday night.
"We are deeply saddened by the tragic plane crash at Muan Airport in South Korea.
"Our thoughts are with all those directly affected and with the people and Government of South Korea," he said.
We are deeply saddened by the tragic plane crash at Muan Airport in South Korea.
— Winston Peters (@NewZealandMFA) December 29, 2024
Our thoughts are with all those directly affected and with the people and Government of South Korea.
-WP
'Unbelievable' - Father of woman killed
Jeon Je-young keeps playing the video of the plane with his daughter and another 180 people on board slamming into a wall and bursting into flames.
His daughter Mi-sook died on board. He still cannot believe it.
"When I saw the accident video, the plane seemed out of control," said 71-year-old Jeon. "The pilots probably had no choice but to do it. My daughter, who is only in her mid-40s, ended up like this. This is unbelievable."
Mi-sook was a warm-hearted child, he said. She brought some food and next year's calendar to his house on 21 December, which became his last brief moment with her.
"She is much nicer than my son, sometimes asking me to go out for a meal," Jeon recalled, showing his last exchanges with his daughter on his mobile phone.
Jeju Air flight 7C2216, arriving from the Thai capital Bangkok with 175 passengers and six crew on board, was seen skidding down the runway with no visible landing gear before crashing into navigation equipment and a wall in an explosion of flames and debris.
Only two people - both crew members - survived and were being treated for injuries.
Grief and rage
Authorities called out the names of some of those killed in the crash, triggering an explosion of grief and rage among the passengers' families gathered in the airport's arrival area.
They screamed, wept and collapsed on the floor of the terminal where their loved ones had been due to return home.
Crime scene investigators collected saliva swaps from families to run DNA tests to identify the victims.
Jeon's daughter had been on her way home after travelling with friends to Bangkok for the Christmas holiday. She leaves behind a devastated family, including a husband and teenaged daughter.
"The water near the airport is not deep. Here are softer fields than this cement runway. Why couldn't the pilot land there instead?" Jeon said.
Fire officials reported that the impact of the crash had left the plane "almost completely destroyed".
"Through collision twice and explosion, most of the passengers were thrown off the plane, though two crew members luckily survived at the tail end," said Yeom Dong-bu, a Muan firefighter who was dispatched to the scene.
"I used to work on ambulances so I've seen this kind of terrible stuff like car crashes, but not on this scale," he added.
Mi-sook was identified by her fingerprints, and her family is looking for a funeral home near her town of Gwangju to transport her body there.
"She was almost home, so (she saw) no need to call the family (to leave any final message). She thought she was coming home," Jeon said.
- RNZ and Reuters
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