The stench of gasoline hangs over Muan International Airport. Behind a police cordon, plane seats, suitcases and twisted bits of metal are scattered, close to the wrecked fuselage of Jeju Air flight 2216.

The Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people from Bangkok to South Korea crashed as it attempted an emergency landing yesterday, smashing into a wall and bursting into flames.

Hundreds of emergency workers put out the fire and combed through the wreckage, but only two people, both flight attendants, were rescued alive, with 179 confirmed dead.

By late afternoon, floodlights illuminated the twisted wreckage as a huge yellow crane lifted the fuselage, allowing officials to continue the search and rescue mission.

Behind a police cordon tape stretched across the wire fence at the edge of the runway, plane seats and other chunks of metal could be seen, offering a glimpse into the catastrophic impact of the crash.

Inside the airport terminal, family members gathered to wait for news, many looking stunned and tearful.

One woman was carried away on a stretcher, apparently having passed out from shock.

The boards typically used for arrival and departure information were instead displaying the names, dates of birth and nationalities of the victims.

“I had a son on board that plane ... He has yet to be identified,” one elderly man waiting in the airport lounge, who asked not to be named, said.

Wailing and screaming echoed through the two-story airport, as the names and identities of victims were confirmed.

Many of the passengers, who were all Korean nationals except for two Thais, had been returning home after their winter holidays.

“My younger sister went to heaven today,” one 65-year-old woman who gave only her surname Jo said.

Her sister had been in Bangkok with her friends on holiday, the woman, wearing a mask and a grey knit hat, added.

“My husband is now trying to check whether she’s been identified.”

The flight had 175 passengers and six crew onboard.

According to authorities, the youngest passenger was a three-year-old boy and the oldest was a 78-year-old.

Five of the dead were children under the age of 10, authorities said, citing the passenger manifest.

The only sounds near the crash site were the whirring of cameras and the murmur of reporters broadcasting live, as hundreds of relatives, lost for words, awaited news of their loved ones aboard the burned plane.

In the area around the runway, reporters could see duty-free booklets and sanitary gloves worn by the flight crew scattered across the field, not far from the charred tail of the aircraft.

It is the deadliest aviation accident on South Korean soil and the worst in years involving the country’s carriers.

A moment of silence was held at sporting events, including volleyball and basketball games, yesterday.

All major South Korean broadcasters changed their schedules to emergency news programming.

End-of-the-year entertainment award shows and comedy shows were cancelled.

Investigators are examining bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee Jeong-hyun, chief of Muan fire station, said. Yonhap news agency cited airport authorities as saying a bird strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction.

Experts said the bird strike report and the way the aircraft attempted to land raised more questions than answers.

“A bird strike is not unusual, problems with an undercarriage are not unusual,” said Airline News editor Geoffrey Thomas. “Bird strikes happen far more often, but typically they don’t cause the loss of an airplane by themselves.”

Jeju Air CEO Kim E-bae apologized for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing.

He said the aircraft had no record of accidents and there were no early signs of malfunction.

The airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the bereaved its top priority, Kim added.

No abnormal conditions were reported when the aircraft left Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, said Kerati Kijmanawat, president of Airports of Thailand.

It is the first fatal flight for Jeju Air, a low-cost airline founded in 2005 that ranks behind only Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines in terms of the number of passengers in South Korea.

Muan International is one of South Korea’s smallest airports but it has seen the number of international passengers jump nearly 20 times to 310,702 from January to November from the same period in 2022, according to government data.

Boeing said in a e-mailed statement, “We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them. We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”

All domestic and international flights at Muan airport had been cancelled, Yonhap reported.

The accident comes as South Korea is in the midst of political chaos, after suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached earlier this month over his ill-fated attempt to declare martial law.

The acting president was also impeached on Friday, leaving the country with its third leader in three weeks.

Civic groups said they were reviewing whether to postpone mass impeachment rallies in light of the accident.

Heartbreaking stories of family members were also shared online, with one saying his mother and his five aunts were one the plane.

“I was told they would arrive around 8:50am today, so I came to the airport to pick up my mother and aunts, but I’ve heard no word from them,” he told local media anxiously.

The runway at Muan airport will be closed until later this week, authorities said, as investigators probe the cause of the crash.

One heart-wrenching screenshot of the final Kakao Talk message exchange between a passenger and their family has been widely reported in local media.

The message from the parent and passenger reads: “Wait, a bird is stuck in the wing. Unable to land now... Should I leave a will?”

It was the last message, sent at 9:01am.

Their child replies: “Why can’t I make a call with you?”. It was delivered at 9:37am and has remained unread.