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At least 174 people were killed on Sunday morning after a South Korean passenger jet crashed and burst into flames on landing, according to local authorities, in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.

The Jeju Air flight was returning from Bangkok with 181 people on board when it failed to deploy its landing gear, skidding down the runway before it struck a wall and was engulfed in fire at Muan International Airport in the south of the country.

Two crew members were rescued from the aircraft’s tail, according to the national fire agency, but most of the passengers were feared dead, officials told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. More than 30 trucks and several helicopters were deployed to the disaster.

Of the 175 passengers, 173 were South Korean, while the remaining two were Thai nationals, according to the transportation ministry. There were six crew members on board.

South Korea’s acting president Choi Sang-mok — who assumed office on Friday after his predecessor was impeached by parliament — vowed to “dig into the cause [and] and take steps to prevent any recurrence of similar accidents”.

“This is a grave situation. We will do our utmost to cope with the damage,” he said from the scene of the crash.

Local television news footage showed thick smoke billowing from the wreckage of the aircraft, a twin-engined Boeing 737-800 jet.

The transport ministry said the airport’s control tower had issued a bird strike warning about a minute before the pilots called mayday. The crash occurred five minutes later.

Ministry officials said they had retrieved the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders in their investigation into the crash. The pilot was a veteran with a flight record of more than 6,800 hours.  

Muan airport would remain closed until January 1, the ministry said.

Jeju Air, a South Korean budget airline that was established in 2005, activated emergency protocols. “We offer our deepest condolences for the victims and bereaved families. We feel great responsibility and will do our best to find out the exact cause of the accident,” the company’s president Kim E-bae said in a televised statement.

The airline said the plane, which was 15 years old, had undergone regular maintenance, and no malfunctions were reported when it departed from Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.

Boeing also said it was in contact with the airline regarding the incident.

South Korea has suffered several fatal aircraft disasters, although the country’s safety record has improved in recent years. According to government data, South Korean carriers had 67 accidents during the past 10 years, which resulted in 59 deaths.

In 1983, a Korean Air flight was shot down by the former Soviet Union, killing all 269 people on board. In 1997, another Korean Air flight crashed in Guam, which killed 228 of the 254 people on board. In 2013, an Asiana Airlines flight crashed as it prepared to land in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring 187.

The disaster on Sunday was the second fatal plane accident in recent days. On Wednesday, an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger flight crash-landed in Kazakhstan after being diverted over the Caspian Sea from Grozny, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

US and Ukrainian officials have blamed Russian anti-aircraft fire for the accident. Russian authorities said heavy fog and a flock of birds caused the diversion, but have also said that it occurred while Ukrainian combat drones were attacking nearby cities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin apologised to Azerbaijan on Saturday for the “tragic incident”, but did not comment on the allegations of Russian interference.

In our last episode of 2024, we go for a walk.

Earlier this year, NPR’s immigration reporter Jasmine Garsd and Code Switch producer Xavier Lopez spent a day in one of their favorite places in the world: Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York.

It’s a place they share with one of the most diverse communities in the world, a place where immigrants from around the globe gather to relax, recharge, and reconnect.

Today on The Sunday Story, you’ll hear an excerpt of an episode from NPR’s Code Switch podcast. You can listen to the full episode here.

And finally, we have a question for you. What’s a place that you visit regularly–a place that lifts you up? We’d love to hear you tell us about it. You can send us a 2-3 minute voice memo at upfirstsunday@npr.org. Bonus points if you include sounds from the space you’re in.

Make sure to tell us your name and where you’re speaking to us from, and we might share it in an episode in 2025.

Thanks for spending your Sundays with us this year.

This episode of The Sunday Story was produced by Justine Yan. The featured Code Switch episode was produced by Xavier Lopez, Jasmine Garsd, Margaret Cirino and Christina Cala. It was edited by Courtney Stein and Leah Donella. Gilly Moon and James Willetts mastered the episode.

We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at TheSundayStory@npr.org.

Listen to Up First on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

An Israeli military raid on a hospital in Gaza has put the last major health facility in the besieged strip’s north out of service, exacerbating a deepening humanitarian crisis in the enclave, according to the UN’s health agency.

The attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital came as Israel stepped up an offensive in northern Gaza that began in October and has killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands to flee.

The Israeli military said it is fighting to prevent Hamas regrouping in Gaza’s north, where most of the population have been forced to flee during Israel’s 14-month offensive against the Palestinian militant group.

The World Health Organisation said initial reports indicated that key departments of the medical facility were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid on Friday.

It said that 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including those on ventilators, remained at the hospital, while others were forced to evacuate to another damaged hospital.

“The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of healthcare,” WHO said in a statement late on Friday. “This horror must end and healthcare must be protected.”

The Palestinian health ministry said Kamal Adwan’s operating and surgical departments, laboratory, maintenance, ambulance units and warehouses had “been completely burnt”.

“The occupation army is forcibly transferring the sick and injured, at gunpoint . . . to the Indonesian hospital, which lacks medical supplies, water, medicines and even electricity and generators,” it said in a statement. “There are patients who are threatened with death at any moment as a result of the harsh conditions.”

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had concluded a two-day operation at the hospital after the facility had been turned into a “major terror stronghold” by Hamas.

Some 240 suspected militants were arrested at the hospital, some of whom were posing as patients, including the hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya, who was currently “being questioned in Gaza”, spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said.

The Israeli military strenuously denied its forces were responsible for starting a “small fire in an empty building” at the facility the day before, which Shoshani said had caused minimal damage.

Hamas denied that its fighters were using the hospital for military activities.

UN agencies and humanitarian groups have repeatedly condemned Israel for attacking medical facilities in Gaza since it launched its offensive against Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack killed 1,200 people.

The WHO said it had verified 516 attacks on health facilities and medical transport in Gaza, adding that more than 90 per cent of the strip’s medical facilities were either damaged or destroyed.

The Israeli offensive in northern Gaza has continued as mediators push for a deal to end the war and to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held in the strip before US president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House next month.

The operation has reduced Jabalia, which before the war was the largest refugee camp in Gaza and home to more than 100,000 people, to rubble, and expanded to neighbouring Beit Lahia where the Kamal Adwan Hospital is located.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said its forces had begun operations in the Beit Hanoun district.

Over the course of the day, two long-range rockets were fired from the area towards Jerusalem, according to Israeli authorities — the first such barrage from Gaza in months. The projectiles were intercepted by Israeli air defences. 

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 45,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, and forced the vast majority of the strip’s 2.3mn people from their homes.