At least 85 people have been killed when a passenger plane caught fire after skidding off a runway and crashing at an airport in South Korea?s Muan city, the country?s National Fire Agency said.

The accident occurred on Sunday at 9.03am local time (00:03 GMT) as the Jeju Air flight, carrying 175 passengers and six crew from the Thai capital Bangkok, was landing at Muan International Airport in the southwest of the country.

The National Fire Agency confirmed that 85 people ? 46 women and 39 men ? have been killed, and the fire that engulfed the plane has been extinguished.

Citing fire agency officials, South Korea?s Yonhap news agency said that hopes are fading for survivors.

Al Jazeera?s Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul in South Korea, said a major rescue operation was under way at the airport, which is located about 289km (179 miles) southwest of the capital.

?This was a flight returning overnight from Bangkok. There seems to have been some kind of malfunction with the landing gear and images which have been on the media here do appear to show the plane landing on its belly, skidding along the runway, followed then by a huge explosion,? McBride said.

?Eyewitness accounts have talked then about a series of explosions and certainly images that we have been seeing have shown a catastrophic fire,? he said.

The plane, a Boeing 737-800 jet, was reported to be carrying two Thai passengers and the rest were believed to be South Koreans.

One photo shared by local media showed thick clouds of black smoke coming out of the plane. Another showed the tail section of the jet engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby.

The Yonhap news agency reports that the crash is believed to have been caused by ?contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear? as the plane attempted to land at the airport.

The country?s News1 agency reported that a passenger texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing. The person?s final message was, ?Should I say my last words??

An official from South Korea?s Transport Ministry?s aviation department said a bird strike was among several theories for the accident that have not been verified and that an investigation was ongoing.

South Korea?s Acting President Choi Sang-mok, meanwhile, ordered ?all-out efforts for rescue operations? at Muan airport.

?All related agencies? must mobilise all available resources to save the personnel,? he told officials in a statement.

Jeju Air, one of South Korea?s largest low-cost carriers, which was set up in 2005, issued an apology for the crash, saying it would ?do everything in our power in response to this accident?.

The crash is the first fatal accident for Jeju Air, though in August 2007, a Bombardier Q400 operated by the airline and carrying 74 passengers came off the runway due to strong winds at the southern Busan-Gimhae airport, resulting in a dozen injuries.

Experts say that South Korea?s aviation industry has a solid track record for safety. (SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES, excluding headline)

?PHOTO: Firefighters carry out extinguishing operations on an aircraft which crashed on landing at Muan International Airport in Muan, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, on December 29, 2024 [Yonhap via Reuters]

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