South Korea plane crash: ‘Should I say my last words’, Jeju Air passenger's desperate message moments before disaster

South Korea Plane Crash: Hours after the one of the worst airline disasters of South Korea, family members of the victims gathered at the Muan International Airport. According to a Reuters report citing News1 agency, a passenger had texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing.

The passenger’s final message read - "Should I say my last words?"

At the Muan International Airport, as a medic announced the names of 22 victims identified by their fingerprints, families screamed and wept loudly.

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, told AFP.

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 told AFP.

Plane crash

Around 176 people were killed in the plane crash in Muan County of South Korea.

Jeju Air’s Flight 2216 returning from Thailand's Bangkok crashed and caught fire on the runway of Muan International Airport on Sunday.

The Boeing 737-800 was attempting to land shortly after 9 am (0000 GMT) at the airport when the incident happened.

A video broadcast on local media showed the plane skidding down the runway with no apparent landing gear before slamming into a wall in an explosion of flames and debris.

The flight had 175 passengers and six crew on board.

The two crew members, a man and a woman, were rescued from the tail section of the burning plane, Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a briefing.

Investigators are looking into bird strikes and weather conditions as possible factors, Lee added.

"Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognise," he also said.

Jeju Air

Kim E-bae, CEO of Jeju Air, apologised for the accident.

He said the cause of the crash was still unknown, that 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 said.

In a statement, the fire department said: “The plane is almost completely destroyed, and identifying the deceased is proving difficult. The process is taking time as we locate and recover the remains.”

As per the Reuters report, Boeing said: "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."