Warning: This article contains graphic images, video and description which some readers may find distressing
A doctor who has been treating one of the survivors of the South Korea plane crash has spoken about what he said when he woke from the devastating incident.
At around 9:03am local time on Sunday (December 29), a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet crash landed at Muan International Airport in South Korea, about 180 miles south of Seoul.
As investigations continue into the crash, it has been confirmed that 179 out of a total of 181 people on board the Jeju Air Flight 2216 have been declared dead in what is South Korea’s worst domestic civil aviation disaster ever.
As authorities try to make sense of what happened, it’s believed that the pilot was forced to make a crash landing at the Muan International Airport when the landing gear of the aircraft failed to deploy.
Footage from the airport showed the plane skidding across the runway without its landing gear open before it collided with the wall and burst into flames.
Director of the Aviation Policy Division at South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Joo Jong-wan said, as per NBC News, that the pilot ‘declared mayday after issuing the bird strike alert’.
A bird strike is when a plane collides with a bird mid-flight. While the majority have little impact on the aircraft, some can cause significant damage to the engine of a plane.
Following the alert, it is reported that the plane was cleared to land, but in the opposite direction.
Since the devastating incident, it has been confirmed that out of 181 passengers and crew on the flight, 179 sadly died.
There are two survivors of the crash, both crew members, who are now being treated for their injuries at local hospitals.
According to news agency Yonhap, one survivor – a 33-year-old flight attendant – has reportedly told doctors that he ‘woke up and was rescued’.
The news agency quoted a hospital director named Ju Woong who is reported as saying: “He’s fully able to communicate. There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such.”
As news continues to emerge regarding the circumstances leading up to the crash, according to local media in South Korea, one passenger onboard the flight sent a text to a family member, where they claimed a bird was ‘stuck in the wing’ which was supposedly stopping the plane from landing.
“Should I leave my last words,” the passenger allegedly wrote.
After this message, the relative said that they did not hear from the passenger again.
