On the morning of December 29, a Jeju Air plane carrying 181 passengers and crew members crashed at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, about 290 km from Seoul. At 5:26 pm (KST), it was reported that 174 people were confirmed dead, while 2 people, both crew members, were rescued.
The plane had departed from Bangkok, Thailand, and it turned out that most of the passengers on the plane were families and children (born in the 2010s), who were returning to Korea after a Christmas trip.
According to witnesses near Muan airport, the plane may have collided with a flock of birds as it prepared to land. It then aborted the landing attempt, accelerated but failed to regain altitude, and circled at low altitude, looking for a way to land on the opposite end of the runway.
On the second landing attempt, the landing gear apparently failed to open, forcing the aircraft to land on its belly. Unable to control its speed, the plane veered off the runway, crashed into a wall and caught fire.
Before this tragedy, Jeju Air had been South Korea’s most popular airline for many consecutive years. According to the Korea Productivity Center’s National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI), 2023 marked the fifth consecutive year since 2018 that Jeju Air ranked first.
Jeju Air is also South Korea’s first and largest low-cost airline. In the overall market it is second only to the national airline Korea Air.
Founded in 2005, Jeju Air has helped transform travel for Korean citizens and tourists. “Affordable prices have made air travel a part of many people’s daily lives. We have innovated to make South Korea a tourist destination in ways never seen before,” Jeju Air said on its official website.
The airline operates a fleet of 42 aircraft, mostly Boeing narrow-body aircraft, averaging 13 hours of operation each per day. Jeju Air operates approximately 217 flights per day. Currently, the airline serves more than 62 routes to 44 destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.
As of the first quarter of 2024, Jeju Air employs approximately 3,000 people. Its main hubs are Gimpo, Incheon (Seoul) and Jeju airports. Last year, the airline carried 12.3 million passengers and had revenue of about $1.31 billion, with projections for 2024 near $1.5 billion.
Jeju Air shares have been listed on the Korean Stock Exchange since 2015. It closed the trading session on December 27 at $5.58 per share, valuing the airline at about $440 million.
At a press conference held this afternoon in South Korea, the CEO of Jeju Air said: “I bow deeply and offer my deepest apologies to all who love Jeju Air. Above all, I offer my deepest condolences and apologies to the passengers who lost their lives in the accident and to their families.”
Jeju Air’s CEO and executives bowed in apology during a press conference on December 29.
According to CEO Kim, it is currently difficult to assess the cause of the accident, as the airline awaits investigative reports from relevant government agencies.
In an earlier statement following the incident, Jeju Air pledged to do everything possible to address the situation.
However, the airline has received harsh criticism for its behavior after the tragedy, i.e. immediately leaving the scene without even holding a briefing and refusing to answer questions, leaving firefighters and public officials, who are doing their best to bringing help to the scene, bearing the anger of the grieving families.
