At least 122 people have died and two were rescued after a Jeju Air passenger jet carrying 181 people erupted in flames as it went off the runway and hit a wall at an airport in South Korea's southwestern county of Muan on Sunday, authorities said. 

 

All but the two are presumed to have been killed, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

 

The accident happened at 9:07 am, when the Jeju Air flight veered off the runway while landing and collided with a fence wall at Muan International Airport in the Muan county, South Jeolla Province, about 288 km southwest of Seoul.

 

Except for the two rescued from the accident, everyone aboard is presumed to have been killed, firefighting authorities said, adding that they were switching to search operations to recover bodies.

 

The authorities had confirmed 122 deaths from the accident as of 2:47 pm.

 

"After the plane collided with the wall, passengers were thrown out of the aircraft. The chances of survival are extremely low," a firefighting agency official said.

 

"The aircraft has almost completely been destroyed, and it is difficult to identify the deceased," the official said. "We are in the process of recovering the remains, which will take time."

 

One passenger and one crew member -- both women -- were rescued shortly after the accident and were being treated at a hospital in Mokpo. Their injuries were not life-threatening.

 

A total of 181, including six crew members, were aboard the Boeing 737-800 plane that had departed from Bangkok at 1:30 am. It was scheduled to arrive in Muan at around 8:30 am.

 

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

 

A temporary morgue has been set up inside the Muan airport to lay the bodies of the victims.

 

Videos aired by local TV stations show the plane attempting to land without its landing gear deployed. The plane skidded along the ground, crashing into a concrete wall before exploding and being engulfed in flames.

 

Officials believe the landing gear failure, possibly due to a bird strike, may have caused the accident. They began an on-site investigation to determine the exact cause.

 

Acting President Choi Sang-mok declared the Muan county as a special disaster zone as he visited the crash site to instruct officials to make all-out efforts for search operations.

 

Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae issued an apology and extended condolences to the family members who lost their loved ones, vowing to provide all necessary support to the victims' families.

 

"Regardless of the cause, I take full responsibility as the CEO," Kim said.

 

This will be the worst aviation accident to have ever happened on South Korean soil. It also appears to be the only fatal crash that Jeju Air has had in its nearly 20 year history.

 

Jeju Air is Korea’s most popular budget airline, flying to dozens of destinations domestically and across Asia.