South Korea plane crash latest: Dozens dead after aircraft’s ‘landing gear fails’ with 181 onboard 

One flight attendant and one passenger have been rescued so far, South Korea’s fire agency said.

‘Currently two have been rescued, one passenger and one flight attendant,’ the national fire agency said in a statement, adding that 32 fire trucks and scores of firefighters had been deployed to the crash site at Muan airport.

The accident happened at 9:07 a.m., when the Jeju Air flight veered off the runway while landing and collided with a fence at the Musan International Airport in the Muan county, about 288 kilometers southwest of Seoul.

A total of 181, including six crew members, were aboard the plane that was returning from Bangkok.

Most of the passengers were Koreans, except for two Thai nationals.

Authorities have extinguished the initial fire and said that search and rescue operations were under way at the crash site.

They also began an on-site investigation to determine the exact cause of the crash.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok called for the mobilisation of all resources to save the passengers.

‘All related agencies… must mobilise all available resources to save the personnel,’ he instructed officials in a statement.

The crash is believed to have been caused by ‘contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear’ as the plane attempted to land at the airport in the country’s southwest, Yonhap news agency reported.

There were 175 passengers and 6 crew members on board, it added.

A photo 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.

Lee Hyeon-ji, a response team officer at the local fire department, has confirmed the number of deaths from the crash.

She told the media: ‘We have so far confirmed 29 deaths from the crash.

‘But the tally could rise due to the critically injured.’

Rescue authorities were evacuating passengers from the rear section of the jet, Lee added.

Footage has emerged of the moment the plane attempts to land – and appears to have an issue with its landing gear.

The aircraft appears to slide along the runway, but it fails to slow. It then slams into the wall at the end of the runway and erupts into a ball of flames.

Frantic emergency services then rush to the scene.

At least 28 passengers have been killed in a plane crash at an airport in South Korea, according to local media.

Passengers are being rescued from the tail of the plane after veering off the runway at Muan Airport.

The plane was said to be carrying 181 people on board, including six crew, as it attempted to land.