Plane crashes at South Korean airport, killing at least 62

A passenger plane carrying 181 people crashed while landing at an airport in southwestern South Korea on Sunday, killing at least 62 people and kicking off a frantic search for survivors, officials said.
The plane, operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air, was landing at Muan International Airport when it veered off the runway, local fire department officials said. Footage of the crash shows a white-and-orange plane speeding down the runway on its belly until it hits a barrier and explodes into an orange fireball.
The cause was not immediately clear. The domestic news media reported that a bird strike appears to have made the plane’s landing gear malfunction, forcing it to crash-land.
Sixty-two people had been found dead as of late Sunday morning, according to the National Fire Agency. Two crew members had been rescued, and rescuers were searching for more survivors.
The plane, operating as Jeju Air flight 7C2216 and flying from Bangkok to Muan, was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members when the accident happened, around 9 a.m. The plane was listed as a Boeing 737-800 by FlightRadar24, a provider of flight data.
Photos from the South Korean news agency Yonhap showed a tail section of the plane separated and engulfed in orange flames with black smoke billowing up. The plane appears to have hit a concrete wall, according to the photos.
South Korea has been dealing with a political crisis following an ill-fated bid early this month by President Yoon Suk Yeol to declare martial law for the first time in decades. Lawmakers voted Dec. 14 to impeach Yoon. Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, the acting president, on Sunday instructed his government to mobilize all equipment and personnel available to rescue as many people as possible, Choi’s office said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.