Passengers are mass-canceling flights with South Korea's Jeju Air after its fatal crash
JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images
- Tens of thousands of passengers are reportedly canceling flights with Jeju Air, South Korean media said.
- That's after one of its jets crashed on Sunday.
- 179 people — almost everyone on board — died in the crash, officials said. The cause is being investigated.
Passengers with the South Korean airline Jeju Air are canceling tickets after one of its aircraft crashed, killing 179 people.
The airline said that 68,000 flight reservations had been canceled as of 1 p.m. on Monday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
Most of the cancellations happened after Flight 7C2216 crashed on Sunday.
Some 33,000 of the cancellations were for domestic flights, and 34,000 for international flights, the report said. Jeju is South Korea's biggest low-cost airline.
The Boeing 737-800 crashed while trying to land at South Korea's Muan International Airport at 9:03 a.m. 179 of the 181 people on board were killed, local authorities said.
Footage showed the plane slide on the runway before it came off, hit a barrier, and burst into flames.
The CEO of the airline, Kim E-bae, issued a public apology: "Above all, we express our deepest condolences and apologies to the families of the passengers who lost their lives in this accident.
"At present, the cause of the accident is difficult to determine, and we must await the official investigation results from the relevant government agencies. Regardless of the cause, as CEO, I feel profound responsibility for this incident," he said, according to The Guardian's translation.
On Monday, most of the homepage of the airline's website had been cleared. A black banner on its English-language version said: "We deeply apologize to all those affected by the incident. We will make every effort to resolve the situation. We sincerely regret the distress caused."
Mass cancelations have happened before after major accidents. This includes customers canceling bookings with Malaysia Airlines after two deadly incidents in 2014.
Investigations into the South Korean crash are underway and no cause has been concluded yet.
A bird strike is one possible factor, with an official in South Korea's transport ministry reportedly saying the airport's control tower issued a bird strike warning before the crash.
But experts are skeptical that it would likely be the only reason, as planes are designed with fail safes and with bird strikes in mind.
Video footage showed the plane landing without its landing gear deployed.
Why that was the case is not yet clear.