this is bbc news. the headlines. more than 170 people have been killed in a plane crash at an airport in south korea. thejeju airflight from bangkok had 181 passengers on board when it came off the runway at muan airport and crashed into a wall, and burst into flames. the cause is still being investigated, but officials believe a collision with birds and poor weather may be to blame. rescuers have found two survivors. the ceo ofjeju airlines has apologised to the victims and their families. there have been protests in georgia as the new president mikheil kavelashvili was sworn in. the former manchester city footballer is a hardline critic of the west and the four main opposition groups have rejected him and boycotted parliament. they insist that the elections

held in october were rigged. three migrants have died trying to cross the english channel this morning, off the coast of sangatte near calais. firefighters and law enforcement were reportedly deployed in a rescue operation after several dozen people ended up in the water. a plane has crashed on landing at an airport in south korea killing at least 177 people. the boeing 7—3—7 belonging toje—ju airlines had 181 people on board, and officials say they expect most are dead. they say some passengers fell out of the fuselage during the crash at muan international airport. two survivors were pulled from the wreckage and have been taken to hospital. this is the moment the plane skidded down the runway before hitting a wall and bursting into flames. the aircraft was arriving at muan airport from bangkok. the authorities say a birdstrike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction.

the airline has issued a formal apology and the aircraft manufacturers boeing said they are in contact withjeju 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. our seoul correspondent jean mackenzie is at the crash site and sent this report. we are at the perimeter of the airport now and this will behind this is where the plane crashed without it overshot the runway. just booking up behind us you can see the black and charred tale of the plane. this is the only part of the aircraft that is still intact. the rest fractured and splintered that the fire service says it is unidentifiable. butjust a way to the right of me here in the fields we have investigators combing the grasses looking for any remnants of the plane and passengers. this is the deadliest plane crash that has ever taken place on south korean soil. it is assumed now that all the passengers have died.

the only two people who have been rescued from the plane were two flight attendants who were sitting at the very back and were able to be taken off quickly and they have been taken to hospital put up the cause of the crash is still unknown. it is reported and thought that the plane's landing gear failed to come down. there are also reports that just before landing a bird got into the plain's engine and caused a fire that although we don't have this confirmed and there are still big questions about what went wrong. the passengers were returning from thailand where it is thought many of them had to be on holiday over christmas. 66 air is the most popular budget airline. it is well known across asia and is a relatively safe airline. this is thought to be the only fatal accident it has had on the almost 20 years it has been operating. for koreans is just one shock after another. the is going through an acute political crisis at the moment after the president was ousted for trying to impose martial law here and so the acting president has only been

in office now 48 hours. this is a major test for him. he has come to the airport and now this afternoon where he is overseeing the recovery operations and offering support liberate families. south korea is suspended president has offered his deep condolences to the families of those who died in a crash. earlier i spoke to alastair rosenschein, a former british airways pilot, now an aviation consultant based in eastbourne well, there are a number of reasons why you can't get the undercarriage to deploy. primarily amongst that would be a loss of hydraulic pressure. so, you know, it is possible to crank the gear down. but, you know, at this stage it's, you know, we're into an area of speculation. what i can say is that the video that i've seen shows the aircraft doing a wheels up,

landing on the runway, and then the aircraft skids to the right of the runway and into some structure. it's been said it was a wall. and then, of course, the aircraft disintegrates into a ball of fire. now it's near impossible to control an aircraft on the landing roll as the speed reduces with the gear up. and so that would explain why the aircraft skidded off to one side. the reports of a bird strike could result in a worst case scenario and loss of hydraulics as well. if both engines are severely damaged. so would the birds have had to have hit the engines? is that what you're saying? well, yes. i mean, a bird strike on any other part of the aircraft is relatively minor, but it's hitting the engines. that that could be the issue. i mean, you remember the sully sullenberger flight

into the river in new york, where the aircraft, an airbus, an airbus aircraft in this case was able to glide down and land on the river. and they managed to survive. in fact, everybody survived that one. but what happened prior to the video of this, this aircraft landing, we we don't fully know yet. they have already recovered either the flight deck data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder. they're what's known as the two black boxes. and there are reports that they've recorded. they've recovered those. so it is, you know, fairly certain that they'll be able to get down to the bottom of this and find out what happened and hopefully try and prevent it from happening again. but bird strikes. if it was a bird strike. they are unpredictable and they can happen pretty much anywhere in the world. and as a pilot, what are you able to do if you don't have any landing gear in terms of of any kind of control of the aircraft?

well, well, first of all, the aircraft will fly normally. if the gear doesn't come down, that isn't the issue. the issue will be the actual touchdown on the runway. so what you want to do is choose an airfield with a long runway as possible. um, land towards the beginning of the runway. now there were there is talk that in the past it was suggested that foam was laid out on the runway to prevent a fire and to aid the aircraft in its in its landing role. however, nowadays that is many airports don't do that. and so you. why is that. not surprising? well, it was just found that it was fairly ineffective. so that's why they don't do it any more. right. sorry. go ahead. yeah. the other thing is there's a time frame here. if the pilots had lost power on their engines due to a bird strike, then there'll be no

time at all. they'll be coming down and landing pretty much immediately. the other thing is, you don't want any rescue vehicles anywhere near the runway during this landing of a gear up aircraft, because the aircraft will be difficult to control and will almost, there's a very strong likelihood it will depart the runway. in other words, go off to the right or the left. and could crash into them. presumably it would take time to manually lower the wheels. well, yes it does. now there is on the... i used to fly 737 many years ago, and there was a viewer on the underneath the carpet in the cabin. you could have a look to see whether or not the gear was down or locked, because the only other indication you have on the flight deck will either be some lights or a display on a on a small television screen, which is called a crt display. and so if you have time, you can crank it down. you also have to know that the undercarriage hasn't come down. um, so sometimes you can have a failure which prevents the pilots from knowing

the undercarriage is down. i'm not suggesting that happened in this case. it's just knowing from previous accidents that these are some of the things that do occur. yes. the officials, a transport official earlier said that the plane had been trying to land, but the air traffic control gave this bird strike warning and offered the pilot the opportunity to land somewhere else. and then apparently two minutes later, the pilot called a mayday and air traffic control gave him permission or gave the pilot permission for the plane to land from an opposite direction. so it sounds like there was some sort of notice. i mean, two minutes isn't very long, is it? at two minutes, no time at all? no. this would suggest a multiple. the multiple bird strikes, in other words, probably taking out both engines and therefore they lost power. they're coming down and they have no choice but to land it. and that would strongly suggest a power power failure, because otherwise

you have the ability to continue flying to another airfield. so it sounds pretty catastrophic. you know, during the flying phase of the flight, in addition to the disaster during the landing roll, i mean, you know, watching the video, it looks like they've made a successful touchdown and that they are travelling down the runway and that looks like the pilots have done a very good job up to that point. and then as the aircraft slows, they will no longer have control, directional control of the aircraft. and so they really are in the lap of the gods at that point. yes. and it looks like it crashed into a wall. so just ran out of space on that particular runway. is there anything in terms of prevention that your first impression now? i mean, it's so hard to say, isn't it, when we don't know the cause. but is there anything in terms of what the airport itself could have done? we talked about the foam that you say wasn't found to be effective, and that's why

they don't do it. but is there any other sort of standard procedure that could be in place to help this sort of situation at airports? well, the only thing that an airport can do is to make sure that the runway is available and clear that they get other aircraft away from, from the runway, any vehicles near the runway removed. and, and then, you know, clear the airspace so they have priority landing and air traffic controllers. they know how to do this, and they react very quickly. and i don't think that the airport in this instance has anything more they can do regarding this. as for the the foam issue, for a start. two minutes is simply not long enough. i mean, it takes some time to do that, to plan it. um, and as i said, it's not always done. there are many areas where they don't do this so that, you know, it was i suddenly remember when i was working for british airways that we were instructed that not to request foam because it's not going to achieve much.

but in the case of, you know, a dire emergency, if they're making a mayday call like that, then it sounds to me like they had no option but to land this aircraft immediately. and so it does look very much like a, you know, is a power loss as well as the undercarriage not coming down. he was talking to me earlier about his impressions about what has caused this. 177 people have been confirmed to have died in this crash. we can show you the footage again at the moment the plane lands on the moment the plane lands on the runway but you can see the wheels are not down so there's no landing gear. it keeps skidding at such a high speed and crashed into a wall, a perimeter wall of the airport. and then bursts into flames. a huge plume of smoke rising up

at the airport. the chinese president has sent a condolence message to the president over this plane crash. also from the german chancellor olaf sholz. a statement also from boeing, it is a 737 flight operated by je�*ju is a 737 flight operated by je—ju and they put out a statement saying they are in contact with je—ju regarding this and will support them contact withje—ju regarding this and will support them and also say we extend our deepest condolences to the families of lost loved ones and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew. jen moon is a journalist in south korea. she gave us an update from muan international airport. it has been 7—8 hours since the crash. authorities are still making their way to rescue and search either

survivors or the bodies. heartbreaking scenes here at the international airport as family gathers to receive news about their loved ones. they are being briefed by government authorities every half hour on the whereabouts and when of the investigations and search and rescue operations but i hear wails of grief from family members. some express anger about what they see as delayed responses from authorities and the airline. some of the families have been allowed near the crash site but were denied access due to the restricted nature of the airport zone. the arrival area of the airport is now packed with families and red cross volunteers. they are handing out blankets. many people are hugging each other and weeping and there is a lot of confusion amongst people, scrambling to identify their loved ones. in the airport area hundreds of relatives are gathered waiting for the news. no cause for the plane crash has been officially confirmed

yet but what relatives and loved ones are hearing is the fire service has actually suggested it could have been because of a collision with birds in poor weather conditions. the transport ministry officials have said their early assessment of communication records say the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning shortly before it planned to land and give the pilot permission to land in a different area. the pilot sent out a distress single shortly before the pilot went pasted the runway and skidded past the buffer zone at the airport. so they informed the plane there was a risk they might hit some birds on landing and gave them the option to land somewhere else? yes. they were given that. but still what we saw was a plane landing on a belly landing without its landing

gear operating. and then the plane hitting a wall and bursting into flames. the plane was almost completely destroyed by this explosion with from what i saw on site just a few hours ago, the tail part retaining a little bit of shape and the rest of the plane looks almost impossible to recognise. i am still smelling a lot of aviation fuel here at the airport. this was a large explosion that the authorities are still trying to investigate the actual cause. it is extraordinary as we look at the footage of the crash to think anybody could have survived but they did pull two people out of the plane. they did. those were the two crew members, in their 20s, one male and one female crew member ofjeju air. they were pulled from the tail end of the aircraft.

those two survivors came from the tail end which is now the remainder, the only remaining debris from that aircraft crash. the two crew have been sent to seoul, about 288km from here, to hospitals of their preference in seoul. you said a little earlier that the families, some of them were complaining about the delayed response from the authorities. in what way, what did that refer to? there is a lot of confusion when and where the briefings from different government ministries would be held. for instance the briefing that is being held byjeju air itself from the ceo and the top finance officer are being held in seoul which is 290km away from here. the bereaved families are complaining about that. also there was also

confusion about the list of those identified dead. names did not match the actual identities. there is a lot of confusion here right now with the authorities scrambling to get things straight and to basically offer support for the bereaved families. that was a journalist speaking to me earlier from the airport. let's retun to the new president of georgia mikheil kavelashvili being sworn in, against a background of weeks of protests against his governing georgian dream party. the former manchester city footballer is a hardline critic of the west and the 4 main opposition groups have rejected him and boycotted parliament. they insist that the elections held in october were rigged. the outgoing president, salome zourabichvili, has left the presidential palace after making a defiant speech to supporters. she said she remained

the legitimate officeholder. on saturday, thousands of protesters in georgia formed a human chain in the capital, tbilisi, to mark a month of daily pro—europe demonstrations. similar rallies have been held in other towns and cities across the country. mass protests have gripped georgia since the government said it would delay eu accession talks until 2028. there were these two parallel situations taking place. one inside the parliament where mikheil kavelashvili was sworn in as the country's next president. outside the presidential palace in central tbilisi where the outgoing president salome zourabichvili addressed her supporters. they gathered this morning outside this palace, presidential palace. she said she was leaving the palace but she would remain with people. she considers herself

as the only legitimate leader, president in georgia. because salome zourabichvili and the opposition have claimed repeatedly that october parliamentary elections in the country were stolen. therefore they do not recognise the legitimacy of the parliament that nominated and voted and today inaugurated mikheil kavelashvili as the next president. i think the next question is will there be international recognition of mikheil kavelashvili as georgia's president? will he get congratulations from the european union, united states, two days ago the united states government imposed sanctions against the most powerful man in georgia. he is the founder of the ruling party georgian dream. very strict sanctions, asset freezes and so on.

in a statement the us state department said sanctions are being imposed for undermining democratic and eurocratic future of georgia for the benefit of the russian federation. that is why we have seen so many people coming out to the streets to protest as they believe the current government in georgia is tilting away from the european union and moving georgia closer to russia. hans gutbrod — professor of public policy at the ilia state university in tbilisi explained what this all means for the future of the ruling party. the georgian dream is capable of ruling the country for now but not really able to govern the country. the country is deadlocked, more than 1000 businesses have signed a petition against the government. their constant protests. the street are often gridlocked so still remains to be

seen how this will go. what about the question hour corresponding just raised about whether the new president mikheil kavelashvili will actually get international recognition. what do you think that? it strikes me that it is unlikely he will get international recognition and one of those problems per georgian dream he isn't even really fully recognised and supported by georgian dream supporters who i think really doubt his credentials and his ability to actually offer something to the country. what do the opposition do now? we have seen the outgoing president salome zourabichvili going for people together outside the presidential palace today but she has left. i suppose she is their figurehead of sorts. what can she and the opposition do now? most likely they will continue the series of protests. they are around the country, it is notjust focused

on the capital. they are often very imaginative and visually striking. also i think it is important to emphasise the country is at a standstill. really the government has quite a task, the de facto government has quite a task to put the country back on track and to make it work again. that hasn't really happened. do you expect more international involvement? the us has imposed the sanctions on the founder of the georgian dream. would you expect more international interventions? there probably will be more interventions of a similar sort. also it is expected salome zourabichvili will travel internationally. there has been some mention that she will be at the at the inauguration of president trump so this will continue to simmer as an issue. is the hope that from the opposition by exerting this

pressure, by continuing with the country not functioning properly at keeping these protests going, that somehow the georgian dream individual politicians will peel that pressure and it will cause some sort of break within the party? there already are fissures and the country in the end, all the shots are called, a lot of people inside the georgian dream are baffled by what is going on and not comfortable with where things are going at all. just a reminder of our main news today. this crash in south korea, this is the moment of this plane landed at the airport, came down onto the

runway without its landing gear, and then crashed into a perimeter wall around the airport and burst into flames as you can see there. the forensics teams are on the site as you would imagine. we can show you some live pictures now. they are still going through the wreckage there with their torches and their floodlights trying to glean any information that might help them find out what happened here. numbers of families have gathered of course at the airport waiting for news of their loved ones. 177 confirmed dead, a total of 181 people on board. stay with us on bbc news. hello there. there's been some more mist and fog around this morning, most of it across central southern england. east anglia, the midlands, parts of south wales too. but the good news is it's not as extensive as it was yesterday, and it should lift and clear much more readily as the westerly wind picks up.

so sunny spells developing. for most of us it's dry, but it's windy. it's really quite wet across parts of northwest scotland, with rainjust feeding in from the atlantic here. some of it pushing further eastwards into parts of aberdeenshire as we head through the afternoon. further south for northern ireland, central southern scotland and down into northern england, it's dry. here's that brightness across england and wales developing as the westerly wind picks up. and of course it's a lot milder here than it was yesterday underneath all of that mist and fog. now overnight tonight, the rain for northwest scotland is going to push further eastwards again. it will be heavy and persistent, turning to snow over the hills. further south it is largely dry, mixture of cloud and some clearer spells and generally a mild start to the day tomorrow. now the rain could cause some issues in scotland on monday and tuesday, the rainfall totals will really start to rack up. it will be relentless and there will be added snow as well. and then as the snow melts, it will just add to those rainfall totals. there could be some localised flooding and of course some travel disruption.

bearing in mind that tuesday is new year's eve, lots of people out and about, of course, but on monday then there'll still be some wintry over the hills of the far north. all of this set to sink further southwards across central southern areas of scotland, into the central belt and across northern ireland and northern england. windy conditions, particularly over the pennines. mixture of brighter spells and some cloud further south, but here it should stay dry for many parts of england and wales. but then new year's eve brings a deep area of low pressure swinging in from the west, so it's going to be very unsettled. it will be very blustery, with a brisk westerly to south—westerly wind, rain sinking further southwards across many parts of england and wales, continuing across northern and western scotland, again wintry over the hills. it's still mild on tuesday, but as we head through new year's day that is about to change. we'll start to see colder air sink down from the north with northerly winds. there will be some brightness around, but the risk of some wintry showers over the hills. so for the end of the first

week of january, it's looking a lot colder, bye—bye.

live from london. this is bbc news. a plane carrying 181 passengers has crashed at an airport in south korea officials say they expect nearly everyone on board has died. the ceo ofjeju airlines has apologised. translation: i want

to give my sincere apologies and condolences to those who have lost their lives in the accident and theirfamilies. this is the scene right now at muan airport the emergency services are sifting through the wreckage of the plane. rescuers have found two survivors. and the new president of georgia — mikheil kavelashvili —has been sworn in, against a backdrop of protests against his governing georgian dream party. hello. we start with developing news from south korea: a plane has crashed on landing at an airport in the country, and at least 177 people have been killed. the boeing 737 belonging tojeju airlines had 181 people on board, and officials say they expect most are dead. they say some passengers fell out of the fuselage during the crash at muan international airport. two survivors have been

pulled from the wreckage and taken to hopsital.