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. this is the moment the plane skidded down the runway before hitting a wall and bursting into flames. the aircraft was en route from bangkok heading for muan airport. the authorities say a birdstrike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction. the airline has issued a formal apology. the local fire chief has given an update on the rescue operation at the airport. translation: we are presuming the cause of the accident to be i a bird strike or deteriorating weather conditions and the exact cause will be determined from a further forensic and joint investigation. we are doing our best to search for more survivors. as a person who has seen the site i can only say i am sad. the ceo ofjeju air has apologised for the accident, bowing deeply during a televised briefing. 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. he also insisted that the airline will cooperate with investigators and make supporting the bereaved its priority. translation: firstly i bow in apology to everyone - who has cherished jeju air. above all i want to give my sincere apology and condolences to those who have lost their lives in the accident and their families. at the moment it is hard to presume the cause of the accident and we have to wait for the official investigation results from the authority. the families of the victims of the plane crash have gathered at muan airport where they listened as the names of those who died were read out. a warning some may find the following clip distressing. umjung. sun kyung eun. jung eun hye. jung hee. kyung eunjung.

in the last hour i spoke to yuna ku from bbc korean service who is inside muan airport where the plane crashed. there have been 170 confirmed deaths so far and people here, yet many of them are still unidentified. so many people, mostly the families of the bereaved, are waiting here, uh, waiting for the announcement or the identification. so right now i'm standing inside the airport where also many other families of the bereaved are staying. and from far, even far away, i can hear some of the families screaming and crying as they hear the announcement of the death of their loved ones. and most of the people on board the plane were they from south korea?

i understand they may have all been on holiday in thailand for christmas. uh, that is true. it is known that most of the people who are in the plane were families. even there was a youngest was born in 2021, and there were many family members altogether. and also most of them are south korean nationals, although there were two thai nationals as well. and in terms of the two people who survived, we understand that they were crew members. has anything else been said about them? uh, unfortunately, after, um, the announcement of two survivors, we are not hearing any additional survivors at this moment, and it seems pretty much, uh, low chance to expect another survivor. and they are right now staying in the hospital. uh, luckily, not very heavily damaged, however,

um, they are not... they aren't doing interviews, but it is known that according to local reports, they were saying to the hospital, one of them said, um, they barely remember anything before the accident. i mean, it is extraordinary when we look at the footage of the huge plume of smoke from when the plane crashed into that wall at the end of the runway, it is extraordinary to think that anybody could have been pulled out of there alive. can you talk to us about what the authorities have been saying about this mayday call made by the pilot, and also the fact that there was this air, this air traffic control warning about a potential bird strike? what can you tell us about what was said by the authorities on that front? so far, the investigation has just started, so there aren't much to confirm. but however, the authorities have been saying that they issued the first warning just before the accident.

and then one minute later, the plane sent a mayday, uh, saying that they are in an urgent situation. and then the plane just landed without a landing gear. uh, and unfortunately, they couldn't, uh, speed down and eventually crash to the end of the runway. that's what we know so far. and can you tell us a bit more about this airline? it's very well known, isn't it? it's a budget airline in south korea that that a lot of people will have used. true. this is one of the most popular low budget airline in south korea. however, it is known that this, from bangkok to chungnam, this airway has just, uh, theyjust began operating this line. so people are saying that there must have been inexperienced, um, staff regarding this flight. however, um, the authorities are keep saying that they need to investigate thoroughly to exactly know

what is the actual cause behind this accident. many people are expecting, uh, there have been, like, 1 or 2 bird strikes which eventually caused the flame inside the plane. however, uh, it isjust a guess for right now. and there's a huge number of emergency personnel were sent to the scene, weren't there? more than 1500 people were sent there to to deal with this. can you just explain who is in charge? who is coordinating everything? because we've got an acting president who's only been in the job two days. is it the president's office and the president who's coordinating all of this? who's in charge? so, as you said, acting president is right now in charge of everything. however, as we know, they're having some political turmoil in south korea in this month. and the prime minister hasjust been impeached on friday.

so many people are worrying if this accident can be settled quite soon. so, however, as you said, there are more than 1000 personnel as securities and those in support of the family of the bereaved. so we are expecting things to settle down soon. and who is it that's dealing with the relatives, those people there where you are in the airport, are they getting regular updates? who's looking after them ? so right now, fire authorities who are in charge of rescuing airports are making announcements regularly about one hour and two hours every hour. so, um, the family of the bereaved are now gathering in some part of the airport where fire authorities come out and say, uh, the updates and what they have found so far. presumably there's no other activity in the airport there. presumably that's been completely closed to everybody else. and it's just reporters like yourself, along with the relatives

of those people who are looking for answers. right now, um, journalists are quite, uh, restricted to move around this airport and the airport itself. the runway is closed until 1st of january. so apparently you can say the airport isn't operating because of this accident. right. just some more information to bring it about the just some more information to bring it about the passengers who were on this flight most of them were south korean. there were also two thai nationals and 181 people in total. the south korean news agency reports the age range of the passengers from age three to age 78. they said that most of them were in their 40s, 50s and 60s. the understanding is that

most of them had been on holiday in thailand and were returning from those holidays. let's speak to former airline captain — barry eustance. ifi if i can show the pictures of the moment the plane comes down and you can tell me what you think has happened here. the ictures think has happened here. the pictures that _ think has happened here. the pictures that i _ think has happened here. tue: pictures that i have think has happened here. tte: pictures that i have seen and the images and the video that i have seen show an aeroplane thatis have seen show an aeroplane that is clearly under control. that is is coming out on the landing roll the wings are level, the nose altitude is high, which you would expect in a gear up landing. clearly the landing gear has not been extended. it looks like their leading edge slats have not been extended all the flaps, the trailing edge flaps. the thrust reverses look like they have been deployed. there is a question here as to why the gear wasn't extended. i would

suggest either that there has been a significant hydraulic failure and that reporting alongside the reporting of bird strike activity might suggest that in this case there was a single or late double engine flameout. this may have caused them to go for a landing with them to go for a landing with the gear up because of time limitations. it is not without precedent. you will remember that the incident on the hudson where they had a bird strike incident on an airbus a320, they had exactly this sort of situation where they had a double flameout and had to make an immediate landing, in that case on the hudson river. it is early days at the moment in the incident inquiry. i don't want to speculate about what i think the course was, but it is possible they may have had some kind of double engine flameout which caused them not to extend the gear but to go for an

orderly landing as far as they could see. it looks to me that the speed at which they were proceeding down the runway was almost take—off speed so it is almost take—off speed so it is a very high speed. almost take-off speed so it is a very high speed.— almost take-off speed so it is a very high speed. why would that have _ a very high speed. why would that have been? _ a very high speed. why would that have been? why - a very high speed. why would that have been? why would i a very high speed. why would that have been? why would it have been so fast, was it because the wheels went down and the flaps on the wings went up? tb? and the flaps on the wings went u - ? �* , and the flaps on the wings went u? �* , ., , , , ., up? by extending the flaps you can slow the — up? by extending the flaps you can slow the plane _ up? by extending the flaps you can slow the plane down - up? by extending the flaps you can slow the plane down to - can slow the plane down to achieve the same amount of lift. if they haven't been deployed and you don't have will breaking, first of all, from an aerodynamic point of view, if you can't extend the flaps and slats you have to come in faster to maintain the same amount of lift to keep it airborne. we have a faster approach and then no or limited retardation device, no wheels, no breaks, nothing to slow you down. if there is limited engine power then the reverses are going to be effectively useless. so it was very

high—speed, it is a 9000 foot runway and it looks like he hit a bank at the end which had a localiser system on it. i think whatever happened, they got it into a controlled situation on the runway but at very high speed and with no retardation they were in the hands of the gods. they were in the hands of the nods. ., they were in the hands of the tods, ., ., they were in the hands of the nods. ., ., ., , ., ~ they were in the hands of the nods. ., ., ., , .,~ ., gods. how long does it take to manually get _ gods. how long does it take to manually get the _ gods. how long does it take to manually get the wheels - gods. how long does it take to l manually get the wheels down? after the hudson incident, the training, and i have done this, with an appropriate attitude, engine pitch attitude on th the after the hudson incident, the training, and i have done this, i have had engine failure is i have had engine failure is coming out of laguardia to coming out of laguardia to replicate the hudson incident, replicate the hudson incident, i have had that in the i have had that in the simulator, training is to focus simulator, training is to focus on the approach and landing to on the approach and landing to get the thing down in one piece get the thing down in one piece on a safe piece of land or on a safe piece of land or necessary, river. it looks like necessary, river. it looks like they did a very good job of they did a very good job of getting the aeroplane onto the getting the aeroplane onto the runway with the wings level runway with the wings level with an appropriate attitude, with an appropriate attitude,

engine pitch attitude on the engine pitch attitude on the aircraft to give the best chance of making a successful approach. but with a high speed, it is anybody�*s guess how long you have got. all the calculation for performance and landing performance are based upon normal retardation devices. you won't get many performance documents that will tell you how much runway you're going to use when you have got your wheels up and no flaps or

morning and they wouldn't be able to land... would that be the incident? tt’s able to land... would that be the incident?— the incident? it's a question of what phase _ the incident? it's a question of what phase of _ the incident? it's a question of what phase of landing - the incident? it's a question. of what phase of landing they were at when that was given. they got down to a50 feet and a knots which is a half decent approach made then they climb to 600 feet and hundred and 58 knots and it looks like they may have encountered, it speculative at this stage, there was a bird strike warning, it is reported that the bird had impacted one of the bird had impacted one of the winds, which would be consistent with a bird strike. the issue with bird strike is that you can't predict where they're going to be. that was they're going to be. that was the case with the incident coming out of laguardia in new york that resulted in the hudson accident. suddenly you have a flock of birds and if ingested into the engines they can cause an engine to flameout. looking at this and

the video and the speeds and the video and the speeds and the configurations of the aeroplane with no slats or flaps, no go down, whatever happened left them with very little time indeed aid to make a normal approach, to extend the gear and restart the engines. that takes quite a lot of time. if you are descending, they kept the flying speed up, but they had to do it without the normal aerodynamic devices which would have allowed them to slow down. the speculation here must be that whatever happened, and a bird strike is clearly high on the agenda of probability, whatever happened it because this crew to take expeditious action to get the aeroplane... the image i'm looking at the moment they were in an orderly upright position when they landed on the runway.

the crew were in control at that phase. i think that is probably what they were focusing on. to probably what they were focusing on.— probably what they were focusing on. probably what they were focusin: on. ., focusing on. to give them the best chance. _ focusing on. to give them the best chance. it _ focusing on. to give them the best chance. it is _ best chance. it is extraordinary that two people were pulled alive. i understand they were at the back of the aircraft. ., . , , aircraft. two crew members i understand. _ aircraft. two crew members i understand. it _ aircraft. two crew members i understand. it looks - aircraft. two crew members i understand. it looks from - aircraft. two crew members i | understand. it looks from the image that they hit this bank at the end of the runway, which is massively unfortunate. at a lot of airfields, those localised aerials would not be on a bank, they would have disintegrated on impact. but thatis disintegrated on impact. but that is the way to set some airfields. ninth thousand feet is not short runway. the speeds i have seen this aeroplane, it was travelling at near take—off speedin was travelling at near take—off speed in myjudgment, it hit the bank, went over the top and at that point i think that is when the carnage occurred.

thank you so much for talking to us, we really appreciate your insight and your thoughts. i see that the pope has said that he is praying for the plane crash victims. that is a statementjust released saying that the pope is praying for the victims of that plane crash in south korea which has killed at least 177 people. hundreds of people protest in tbilisi as the new president of georgia, mikheil kavelashvili has been sworn in, despite the weeks of rallies against his governing georgian dream party, and the election results. the former manchester city footballer is a hardline critic of the west and the a main opposition groups have rejected him and boycotted parliament. they insist that the elections held in october were rigged. 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. the outgoing president has left the presidential palace after making a defiant speech to the supporters and she said 1532 00:19:23,768 --> 00