The China Mail - South Korea grieves after deadliest plane crash kills 179

The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea when it crashed on arrival Sunday, killing everyone aboard -- save two flight attendants pulled from the twisted wreckage of the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.

Officials have cited a bird strike as a likely cause of the crash, which flung passengers from the plane and left it "almost completely destroyed", according to fire officials.

Video showed Jeju Air Flight 2216 landing on its belly at Muan International Airport, skidding off the runway as smoke streamed out from the engines, before crashing into a wall and exploding in flames.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Sunday that it would lead a team of investigators, including from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), to join officials in South Korea in probing what caused the crash. The country has a solid air safety record.

Both black boxes -- the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- have been found.

One of the flight attendants who survived was awake in hospital and able to communicate late Sunday, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"When I woke up, I had already been rescued," the 33-year-old told doctors, according to the hospital.

He suffered multiple fractures, while the other crew member -- a 25-year-old woman -- injured her ankle and head, Yonhap reported.

Inside the airport terminal late Sunday, tearful family members gathered to wait for news.

An official called out the names of 65 victims who have been identified, with each name triggering fresh cries of grief.

Under floodlights, rescue workers used a giant yellow crane to lift the burned-out fuselage of the orange-and-white aircraft on the runway at Muan -- some 288 kilometres (about 180 miles) southwest of Seoul.

Bits of plane seats and luggage were strewn across the field next to the runway, not far from the charred tail.

- 'Sister went to heaven' -

All of the passengers were Korean apart from two Thais, a three-year-old and a 78-year-old, authorities said.

"I had a son on board that plane," an elderly man waiting in the airport lounge, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

"My younger sister went to heaven today," a 65-year-old woman, who gave only her surname Jo, told AFP.

Authorities said they were working to complete the identification of all victims.

Minutes before the crash, the control tower had issued a warning of a bird strike, with the pilot soon after making a "mayday" distress call.

Video shows the plane coming off the tarmac and hitting a wall, but officials dismissed speculation that the length of the runway might be a factor in the crash.

- National mourning -

Low-cost carrier Jeju Air said it "sincerely" apologised, with top officials shown bowing deeply at a press conference in Seoul.

Boeing said that it was in touch with Jeju Air and stood "ready to support them".

South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-mok, who took office only on Friday, convened an emergency cabinet meeting and then visited the crash site at Muan.

US President Joe Biden led a wave of global condolences, saying he was "deeply saddened" by the crash.

South Korea declared a seven-day national mourning period, with memorial altars to be set up nationwide.

A number of fatal aviation accidents have occurred globally due to bird strikes, which can cause a loss of power if the animals are sucked into a plane's air intakes.

U.Feng--ThChM