Jetliner crashes and bursts into flames in South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 aboard

A jetliner crashed in southwest South Korea and burst into flames Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 aboard in an aviation disaster that rocked a country already reeling from political scandal.

The Jeju Air aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, was carrying 175 passengers and six crew from Bangkok when it skidded off the runway and crashed into a concrete wall at the Muan International Airport, local officials said.

A total of 179 died in the crash, with just two crew members miraculously surviving  in one of the nation’s worst aviation disasters. The victims ranged in age from 3 to 78. The male and female survivors were in the rear of the plane.

The crash triggered a massive emergency response as more than 1,000 firefighters, soldiers, first responders and police deployed to the scene in a frantic effort to rescue passengers from the fiery wreck.

Officials said the Jetliner’s fuselage was nearly entirely burned, with only a tail section surviving the fire.

“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognize,” Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a news briefing..

Video footage showed the plane skidding on its belly down the runway before veering into the wall and exploding. Officials said they were investigating both a bird strike and landing gear failure as contributing to the accident.

The accident occurred as South Koreans were already grappling with a massive political scandal that resulted in their President and their first Acting President being impeached by Parliament over a failed effort to impose martial law a month ago. 

Current Acting President Choi Sang-mok visited the site a few hours after hte crash

"The government would like to offer its sincere condolences to the bereaved families and will do its best to recover from this accident and prevent a recurrence," he said.

The crash was the most deadly of any to occur on South Korean soil and the second worst involving one of the country's airlines.

The worst was a 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed more than 200 people, according to the country's transportation ministry .