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

South Korean emergency officials say that 47 people are dead after a plane caught fire during landing at an airport in the country’s south.

The fire engulfed the aircraft carrying 181 people when it skidded off the runway just after landing and struck a barrier. The country´s emergency office said its landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned.

The National Fire Agency says that a total of 47 people on board have been found dead as a result of the incident.

The airline involved in the crash, Jeju Air, has never had a fatal crash before today’s. It was founded in 2005.

However, Jeju Air was the subject of a federal investigation for a plane having flown despite having a defect in the tip of its wings.

The carrier is known as a low-cost option in South Korea that flies to dozens of countries on the Asian continent.

Three people have been successfully rescued from the plane crash so far, according to Yonhap News in South Korea.

One passenger and one crew member are among those rescued.

Local hospitals have been in contact with authorities to help with those injured and casualties.

Aviation expert Alex Macheras has said the aircraft attempted a ‘belly landing’ without its landing gear extended before it hit the perimeter wall.

He added: ‘Jeju Air is the largest South Korean low-cost airline with an impeccable safety record (like the other Korean airlines).

‘The airline operates the world’s busiest flight routes, with an all-Boeing fleet of 40. Rescue & recovery operation is currently underway, per govt’

The Jeju Air flight had reportedly attempted one landing before being forced to ‘go-around’ when the landing gear failed to lower normally, the Guardian report.

A go-around is a standard aviation manoeuvre where pilots abort a landing attempt and circle around for another try.

Harrowing images have been shared showing black smoke billowing into the air following the crash.

Drivers passing by the road next to Muam International Airport took snaps of the incident.

Jets of water can be seen in an attempt to put out the flames following the crash.

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.