The passenger plane with 181 people onboard skidded on the runway at a high speed and slammed into a wall before exploding into flames.

       Two crew members were rescued alive from the tail of the burning plane, but over the ensuing hours on Sunday, grim news trickled out to anxious relatives at Muan International Airport, in southwestern South Korea.

       By late Sunday, all of the remaining 179 people onboard were confirmed dead, making the crash of the plane — flown by the popular low-cost carrier Jeju Air — the worst aviation disaster involving a South Korean airline in nearly three decades and the worst ever on South Korean soil.

       Sunday’s crash was the deadliest worldwide since that of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 people on board died as the plane plunged into the Java Sea, according to reports from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.

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       Officials were investigating what caused the Jeju Air flight to crash-land, including why its landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned and whether the plane had been struck by birds.

       As speculation swirled about the cause of the crash, hundreds of family members of passengers endured the painful wait for news of their loved ones returning home from a trip abroad. Wails and screams filled the Muan airport on Sunday afternoon. A young woman comforted an older woman weeping about her son. Two crying women embraced each other.

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