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 4 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 deployed in a rescue operation after several dozen people ended up in the water.

at least 177 people have been killed. the boeing 37 had 181 people on board and officials say that they expect most of them are dead. they say some passengers fell out during the crash. two survivors have been pulled from the wreckage and taken to hospital. this is the moment that the plane skidded down the runway before hitting a wall and burst into flame�*s. the authorities say a bird strike may have caused the landing gear to malfunction. the airline has issued a formal apology. earlier i spoke to alastair rosenschein, a former british airways pilot, now an aviation consultant based in eastbourne — i asked him what could have prevented the landing gear from functioning properly... 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 aircraft skidded 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? to have hit the engines? well, yes. to have hit the engines? 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. live to hyunjung kim from the bbc korean service in seoul. more details are emerging all the time but we've also just seen from local media details of a text message sent from

somebody on board to a relative. tell us a bit about that. , ., ., ., relative. tell us a bit about that. , ., ., , that. yes, what local media is reporting _ that. yes, what local media is reporting and _ that. yes, what local media is reporting and according - that. yes, what local media is reporting and according to - reporting and according to media, a passenger sent a text message to a family member saying that a bird was stuck on the wing. but the plane couldn't land. should i leave my last words? according to the local media? he said they were unable to reach the passenger. it has not been confirmed and it's still under investigation. tells would—be authorities have been saying about what could have happened. i know that they have happened. i know that they have recovered the voice recorder now and the flight recorders. what have the authorities said?- authorities said? the authorities _ authorities said? the authorities say - authorities said? the authorities say that l authorities said? the i authorities say that they retrieved the flight box and they are very still investigating the cause of the accident. they are actually trying to build many causes of

the minute as the investigation is still ongoing. then the government actually has declared a national mourning period of seven days lasting up to midnight onjanuary four. to midnight on january four. so, to midnight onjanuary four. so, it seems like there still focus on identifying the victims whether they and also the investigation of the cause and they will release a statement on that later. initially, they did say that the fire service said that there was a collision with birds and poor weather may have been to blame. we also heard that a mayday made from the pilot in the moment before the plane came down without any landing gear?— plane came down without any landing gear? yes, that's what the authorities _ landing gear? yes, that's what the authorities are _ landing gear? yes, that's what the authorities are saying. - landing gear? yes, that's what the authorities are saying. the j the authorities are saying. the director says that according to the director the aviation

policy said that that the airport once the aircraft at atm and two minutes later at 8:59am, the pilot sent out the mayday signal. then, at 9am that was the opposite direction of the designated runway. then later, they couldn't land so they tried a second attempt at a runway and then however, the aircraft couldn't land without deploying landing gear. it then crashed. it still under investigation and we will be able to get more detail on that later on. . , ., later on. the families have gathered. _ later on. the families have gathered, haven't - later on. the families have gathered, haven't they? i later on. the families have | gathered, haven't they? at later on. the families have - gathered, haven't they? at the airport and are waiting for updates in terms of trying to find out the confirmation of whether their relatives but we have the two people survived the crash and were pulled from the crash and were pulled from

the wreckage. has anything been said about how they are? yes. the two peeple _ said about how they are? yes. the two people are _ said about how they are? yes. the two people are the - said about how they are? yes. the two people are the crew i said about how they are? yes the two people are the crew who were supposed... which was the only thing that was in the shape when the accident happened. then, the crewmembers working were taken to a local hospital but now then move to a hospital but now then move to a hospital insole. they are not in a severe injury, they not severely injuring his —— injured. severely in'uring his -- injured._ severely in'uring his -- in'ured. ~ ., ., injured. when you look at how much the _ injured. when you look at how much the plane _ injured. when you look at how much the plane was _ injured. when you look at howl much the plane was destroyed, you say there's going to be a period of national morning. also tell us about the people who were on board, what we know about them, their nationalities, and ages. 50 nationalities, and ages. so far, the nationalities, and ages. sr far, the national agency says that 177 people were killed and

two are still missing. that means they are still identifying the two people, bodies, and most of the passengers on board were south korean with the exception of two thai nationals. so far, the fire agency says that 82 meals with victims and 84 females were killed and there are many people are identified. it’s people are identified. it's such a distressing time for those waiting for news, we saw the images of them reading out the images of them reading out the names of those who had been confirmed dead. do you know who is looking after the people at the airport? who's giving them their support who is coordinating the emergency services? there are some of the people. something like 1500 people. something like 1500 people from emergency personnel. this all happened while south korea is in a political crisis with an acting president has only been on the job two days. it’s

president has only been on the job two deve— job two days. it's been only two days — job two days. it's been only two days after _ job two days. it's been only two days after the - job two days. it's been only two days after the new - job two days. it's been only i two days after the new acting president who was the deputy prime minister became the new acting president. actually, the acting president. actually, the acting president. actually, the acting president declares special disaster in one and it's been made into funding for victims. so far, the country's leaders are taking their issues but focusing on the recovery effort first. it is reported that they are going to be near the airport and the president arrived in the afternoon and he's trying to organise the scene. . ~' he's trying to organise the scene. . ~ ,, he's trying to organise the scene. ., ~ i. he's trying to organise the scene. ., ~ . ., scene. thank you so much for talkin: scene. thank you so much for talking through _ scene. thank you so much for talking through all _ scene. thank you so much for talking through all that. - scene. thank you so much for talking through all that. we i talking through all that. we can show you some live pictures now that we've got from the site of the crash, this is, it's very dark there now and this is the site there at one

international airport. seven of national mourning declared by the acting president. he is now dealing with this. also, just the information that we will bring you a little early at the beginning of a conversation was that local media are reporting a text message from a passenger on board that flight to a family memberjust before the crash saying that a bird was stuck in the wing. at the plane couldn't land. the authorities did say that even though there has been no confirmation, the fire service said that they believe that a collision with birds and poor weather may have to blame. we also heard from a transport authority saying that the air traffic control had sent out a bird collision warning. as we were hearing from our correspondence, the pilot sent a mayday and that's

when the plane came down onto the runway. that when it crashed into a wall and burst into flames. there's plenty more on the bbc website. it has all the latest updates and all the details of what we know so far. do check it out. 181 people on board, at least 177, have been confirmed to have been killed, two are still missing but we do know that to survived, two members of the crew who are at the back of the plane, survived. they were pulled from the wreckage and sent to hospital. french maritime authorities have confirmed the deaths of three migrants crossing the english channel this morning, off the coast of sangatte near calais. firefighters and law enforcement were deployed in a rescue operation after several dozen people ended up in the water. the recovered bodies were transported by the french navy helicopter. four people were

taken to hospital. it brings the number of deaths from channel crossings to 75 this year. almost 1,500 people have made the crossing in the past four days. with more on this i'm joined from the bbc newsroom by our correspondent, frances read. can you talk is through this incident this morning? details are onlyjust _ incident this morning? details are onlyjust starting - incident this morning? details are onlyjust starting to - are onlyjust starting to become more clear that this is what we know so far. so, the government department in france that deals with maritime affairs that this happened at around 6am local time this monitor that about 5am uk time. they said the coastguard managed to rescue 45 people who were then given medical treatment for hypothermia but the three people were found unconscious and died. in the past, few days, more than 1100 people have arrived in the uk in small boats. that hundreds a

day over the christmas period because they've been exceptionally calm conditions at sea, despite the foggy conditions that we've seen in the uk. that scene is favourable conditions for people trying to make that crossing to do so, later staff shown more than 36,000 people have arrived in the uk in small boats over the course of this year, that is 24% of the previous year. it's one of the busiest shipping lanes in the entire world, it is hundreds of shipping vessels crossing every single day so even when weather conditions are, as they have been over the past few days, it's still incredibly dangerous. 0f it's still incredibly dangerous. of course, at this time of year, but the temperatures dipping solo, even minutes in the water can be incredibly deadly. the uk home office says it's aware of what office says it's aware of what happened this morning, it hasn't given any more, than

that but previously said it wants to end all small boat crossings, saying it wanted to dismantle the business models of people smuggling gangs. it also said that there is a new trend of overcrowding in boats so fewer boats for the same number of people so worrying trend. . number of people so worrying trend. , ., trend. there is our correspondence i trend. there is our - correspondence joining us correspondencejoining us there. let's return to our other main story — 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. (tx officeholder.0n 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. hans gutbrod is professor of public policy at the ilia state university in tbilisi. she explained what this all means for the future of the ruling party. the dream is capable of ruling the country for now, but it's not really able or not really able to govern the country. the country is kind of deadlocked. more than 1000 businesses have signed a petition against, uh, against the government. there are constant protests. the streets are gridlocked. so it still remains to be seen how this is going to go. what about that question that our correspondentjust raised there about whether the new president, mikhail kavelashvili, will actually get international recognition? what do you think on that? well, it strikes me that that it's unlikely that he'll get that international recognition. and one of the problems for the georgian dream

is that he's not 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. so what do the opposition do now? we've seen the outgoing president, salome zurabishvili, saying that calling for people to gather outside the presidential palace. but she has left, hasn't she? i suppose she is their figurehead of sorts, isn't she? what can she and the opposition do now? well, most likely they will. they will continue the series of protests around the country. that's very important. it's not just focussed in the capital. they're often very imaginative. they're visually striking. and also i think it's important to emphasise, as i said, the country is at a standstill. so really the government has quite a task. the, the effective government, the de facto government has quite a task to put the country back

on track and to put it to make it work again, that that hasn't really happened. well, do you expect more international involvement then? i mean, as we were mentioning, we've heard that the us has imposed these sanctions on the founder of the georgian dream. would you expect more international interventions? there probably will be more, um, more interventions of a similar sort. um, also, it is expected that salome zurabishvili will travel internationally. there's been some mention that she will be at the inauguration of president trump. so this will continue. this will continue to simmer, at least as an. issue, i suppose, is the hope that from the opposition then that by exerting this pressure, by continuing, as you say, with not the country not functioning properly and keeping these protests going, that somehow the georgian dream individual politicians will feel that pressure and it will cause some sort of break—up

within the party. then there already are fissures and the country is, in the end is all the shots are called by bidzina ivanishvili. and i think it's fair to say that lots of people inside the georgian dream are very rattled by what's going on. they're not comfortable with where things are going at all. azerbaijani president ilham aliyev has told state television that the passenger plane that crashed in kazakhstan, killing 38 people, was damaged due to an accidental shooting from the ground in russia. president aliyev said he regretted that "some circles" in russia had tried to hush up the truth about the crash of the azerbaijan airlines plane, by sowing false narratives about the causes of the crash. russian president vladimir putin yesterday apologised for what the kremlin called a �*tragic incident�* after russian air defences were fired against ukrainian drones. mr aliyev said the plane was hit by accident and "admitting guilt and apologising in a timely

manner were measures and steps that should have been taken." the forensics are still, the fire service, are now still sifting through the wreckage of that plane which crashed at around 9am this morning. it killed at least 177 people. there were 181 people on board, two are still missing, but two people did survive and were pulled from the wreckage. they are now being treated in hospital. there's plenty more of this on bbc news so do stay with us. 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 there have been protests in the georgian capital of tibilisi after the new president — mikheil kavelashvili — was sworn in, despite weeks of rallies against his governing georgian dream party. hello. we start with south korea, where a plane has crashed on landing at an airport, 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