Harrowing first words of South Korea crash survivor revealed after 179 killed including three generations of one family
THE haunting first words of a cabin crew worker who survived a plane crash that killed 179 in South Korea have been revealed.
Two airline workers narrowly avoided death when the doomed Jeju Air plane skidded off the runway and smashed into a concrete barrier on Sunday.
They were the sole survivors out of the 181 on board.
A 33-year-old male flight attendant, who has only been identified by his surname, Lee, was rushed to hospital after the disaster.
According to his doctors, he woke up disorientated and asked: “What happened, why am I here?”
He told medics he had been wearing a seatbelt before the crash, but could not remember anything after that.
It is understood Lee was in charge of passenger service at the back of the Boeing 737-800.
He suffered a fractured left shoulder and injuries to his head and was rushed to a hospital in Mokpo before being transferred to Ewha Woman’s University Hospital in Seoul, where he woke up.
Meanwhile the 25-year-old female flight attendant who also survived is being treated for scalp lacerations and ankle fractures at Asan Medical Center in eastern Seoul.
Investigators are desperately trying to piece together what caused the harrowing crash – one of the worst aviation disasters in South Korea’s history.
Serious questions are set to be asked over whether the horror incident could have been avoided.
Flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the wreckage – but authorities have warned it might take months to complete a probe into the crash.
The passenger plane, which had flown in from Bangkok, is thought to have hit a bird on its approach to Muan International Airport – crippling the plane’s landing gear.
Video shows it approaching the airport when its right engine was struck by what appeared to be a bird.
The collision may have forced the pilot – who is reported to have made a mayday call shortly after the strike – to shut down the damaged engine as he wrestled to control it in the sky.
Several attempts to land were aborted by the pilot before a final decision was made to attempt it.
The aircraft quickly slammed into the tarmac as the pilot tried to land safely.
But the pilot’s heroic landing was all in vain as it continued to speed off the end of the runway before smashing into a concrete wall.
The plane instantly exploded after hitting the structure at the end of the 2,800-metre runway.
The impact is believed to have set off the fireball by rupturing fuel tanks.
Rescue teams raced to the scene and, incredibly, pulled two survivors from the rear of the blazing wreck.
Tragically everyone else on board – 175 passengers and four crew members – died in the flames.
Hundreds of family members remain camped at the airport to see the bodies of their loved ones in heartbreaking scenes.
Among those killed were three generations of the same family.
A man in his 60s told Korean Yonhap news agency that his sister-in-law, daughter, her husband and their young children had died.