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179 confirmed dead, two survive in South Korea’s worst plane crash
Two victims on board the deadly Jeju Air plane crash on Sunday were Thai, according to South Korean authorities.
A father of one of the victims, Boonchuay Duangmanee, told the Associated Press that he “never thought that this would be the last time we would see each other forever.”
Duangmanee’s daughter, Jongluk, had been working in a factory in South Korea for several years, he told the AP. She had been back In Thailand visiting family before departing on the flight from Bangkok to Muan International Airport.
“I heard that the plane exploded in Korea this morning. But I did not expect at all that my daughter would be on this flight,” he said.
A man who witnessed Sunday’s plane crash in Muan, South Korea, said he is “devastated” by the disaster, describing the scene of the accident to Reuters.
Im Young Hak, who owns a seafood restaurant near the site of the crash, told Reuters he saw “a big dark smoke” and heard multiple explosions around 9 a.m. local time Sunday (7 p.m. ET on Saturday).
He first thought the noise was from an oil tanker accident, as there are many oil tankers nearby, Reuters reported. When he realized it was a plane that crashed, he thought that wild geese could have caused the disaster.
“I feel devastated,” Young Hak said, according to Reuters. “It happened right here, not far (away). We feel bad for an accident happening the other side of the globe, but it happened right here. It is traumatic. I’m not sure how long I will feel this way, but it won’t be a short time — that I know.”
One of the two survivors of Sunday’s Jeju Air crash in South Korea is conscious and talking, despite suffering multiple fractures, according to Ju Woong, the director of Seoul’s Ewha Hospital, where the 33-year-old is being treated.
The hospital director said the man was admitted to the intensive care unit on Sunday afternoon and examinations revealed fractures in his back, which have restricted the patient’s movement. He is currently under intensive monitoring.
The hospital’s psychiatry department is expected to help manage the man’s post-traumatic stress, the director added.
“We did not ask detailed questions about the accident. Considering the potential trauma and the patient’s current condition, we decided not to probe further,” the director said.
The man apparently told doctors, “When I woke up, I realized I had been rescued,” according to the director.
Both of the crash survivors were members of the flight crew, according to fire officials. They were rescued from the plane’s tail section after the airliner burst into flames.
The female survivor of Sunday’s crash is being treated at Seoul Asan Hospital, according to a hospital briefing.
Relatives of passengers that were on the plane react at Muan International Airport in South Korea on December 29.
Relatives of passengers that were on the plane react at Muan International Airport in South Korea on December 29. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Just two of the 181 people on board a South Korean airliner survived when the passenger jet crash-landed at an airport in the country’s southwest Sunday morning local time.
The aircraft skidded down a runway at Muan International Airport on its belly before bursting into flames. The two survivors — both crew members, one male and one female — were rescued from the plane’s tail section, the only part of the aircraft that retained some of its shape, emergency services said. The ages of those on board ranged from 3 to 78.
It Is the deadliest aviation disaster to hit South Korea since 1997, when a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 crashed in the Guam jungle, leaving 228 people dead.
Here’s what to know:
Fiery crash: Footage of Sunday’s crash-landing showed the Jeju Air flight sliding on its belly at high speed, hitting an earthen embankment and erupting into a fireball. Videos showed neither the back nor front landing gear were visible as smoke poured from the back of the sliding aircraft.
Search for a cause: Both local fire officials and aviation experts say some sort of landing gear malfunction was likely. Lee Jeong-hyun, the head of the Muan Fire Department, told reporters the cause was “estimated to be the occurrence of a bird strike or bad weather.” But the crash investigation could take years, and experts have urged local officials not to speculate on its cause — even as they face a demand for answers from passengers’ loved ones.
Strong safety record: US aviation giant Boeing has had a turbulent time in recent years, including two 737 Max crashes. But the plane involved in the latest crash, a Boeing 737-800, is described by analysts as a reliable workhorse of the skies with an extremely strong safety record. Jeju Air, South Korea’s largest low-cost airline, also has a strong record.
Two “black boxes” found: ?Both black boxes from the airliner have been recovered, including flight data and voice record, according to a briefing from South Korea’s land ministry. The devices offer aviation safety investigators critical facts when piecing together what happened.
Final moments: Just before the flight crash-landed, a passenger texted their friend to say a bird struck the plane, according to messages published on CNN affiliate JTBC. “Should I leave my last words?” the passenger said, before contact was lost.
Backdrop of political crisis: The tragic plane crash comes as South Korea’s government faces a full-blown political crisis and leadership remains uncertain in the country. Acting President Choi Sang-mok, who has only been in the job since Friday, visited Muan International Airport on Sunday.
Moments before the Jeju Air flight crash-landed, a passenger on board texted their friend to say a bird struck the plane, according to messages widely shared in South Korean media, including CNN affiliate JTBC.
“Wait a minute… we can’t land because a bird (or birds) caught in our wing,” the passenger said at 9 a.m. local time Sunday on a Korean messaging platform, KakaoTalk.
“Since when?” the other person asked.
“Just now… Should I leave my last words?” the passenger responded, before contact was lost.
Investigation underway: Local fire officials and aviation experts say some sort of landing gear malfunction was likely, and the pilot also made a mayday call shortly after the control tower warned about birds in the area, but the official crash investigation could take years.
Experts have urged local officials, who are facing demands for answers from loved ones of those killed in the aviation disaster, not to speculate on its cause until more information is available.
The final death toll from the plane crash in South Korea is 179, meaning just two people survived, the fire service says.
Two crew members survived the Jeju Air crash after being pulled from the plane’s tail, the fire service previously said. Both are in hospital, but their condition is not yet known.
Among the dead, 84 are male and 85 are female while the genders of 10 people have not been confirmed, according to the authority.
South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok has declared a week-long mourning period from Sunday to January 4, following the deadly airliner crash at Muan International Airport.
He added that 17 memorial altars would be set up nationwide.
The call for unity comes as South Korea faces a full-blown political crisis.
Just two days ago, the country’s parliament voted to impeach prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo, weeks after President Yoon Suk Yeol was stripped of his powers over his short-lived declaration of martial law.
The Jeju Air cr’sh in South Korea on Sunday is the deadliest aviation disaster to hit the country since 1997, when a Korean Airlines flight crashed in the Guam jungle, killing 228 people.
There have been several incidents since 1997, but few involved any reported fatalities.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, there have been no other accidents involving fatalities on passenger flights in South Korea since April 2002.
In that April 2002 incident, an Air China Boeing 767-2J6ER crashed into a mountain while attempting to land in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, according to an accident report published by the Korea Aviation–Accident Investigation Board.
Of the 166 people on board, 129 of them, including two copilots, were killed, the report said.
The youngest passenger on board the Jeju Air flight which crash-landed on Sunday at Muan International Airport was a three-year-old child, and the oldest was a 78-year-old, according to the fire service, citing the passenger manifest.
So far, the death toll of the devastating crash stands at 177, the fire service said, leaving just two of the 181 people who were on board the plane unaccounted for.
Two crew members – one male and one female – survived the crash and are in hospital.
A week of mourning will be held in South Korea’s Jeolla province to remember the victims of the plane crash, a provincial official said during a briefing on Sunday.
The death toll of the plane crash in Muan, South Korea, has risen again, to 177, according to the fire service.
This leaves only two out of the 181 people who were on board the plane unaccounted for.
The number of survivors remains at two – both crew members, one male and one female – according to the fire service. The pair were pulled from the aircraft’s tail.
More than 1,570 personnel from the military, police and government have been deployed to Muan in South Korea’s Jeolla province to provide support for the recovery effort, an official from the country’s transport ministry said.
The official added that the ministry will interview control tower staff to gather additional information, including whether there were visibility issues.
Communication data between the cockpit and the control tower will also be reviewed, the official added.
Remember: The crash occurred approximately two minutes after the airliner made a mayday call to the control tower, which instructed the plane to land in the opposite direction on the runway.
Rescue workers are making their way through the wreckage of Jeju Air flight 7C 2216, which crash-landed at South Korea’s Muan International Airport.
The aircraft was carrying 175 passengers and six crew when it crashed. Two crew members have been pulled from the wreckage, while dozens of people have been confirmed dead. It is the deadliest aviation disaster to hit South Korea since 1997, when a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 crashed in the Guam jungle, with the loss of 228 lives.
Experts told CNN that the plane’s undercarriage – specifically, the wheels used for takeoff and landing – appeared not to have fully deployed before landing. But what caused this failure to deploy is still unclear.
The two confirmed survivors of the Jeju Air crash in South Korea were rescued from the plane’s tail section, the only part of the aircraft that retained some of its shape, Muan fire chief Lee Jung-hyun told a briefing.
The survivors of the crash, a male and a female crew member, are being treated in hospital.
“Only the tail part retains a little bit of shape, and the rest of (the plane) looks almost impossible to recognize,” the fire chief said.
Video and images from the scene show the mottled and charred remains of the aircraft, most of it turned black from the fire. Only the tail section is visibly intact.
There will be questions asked about the response of the ground team at Muan International Airport in South Korea, where a Jeju Air flight crashed on Sunday killing at least 176 people, an aviation journalist told CNN.
“There are a lot of questions here about the response to this incident from the ground perspective,” said Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline News.
In a situation like this one, more preparations could have been put in place by ground operatives before the plane reached the runway, Thomas suggested.
“With an emergency like this, why (weren’t) the fire tenders [tankers] out there beside the runway? Why hadn’t they put foam on the runway?” he asked.
There are also questions around the situation on board the plane, Thomas said, including why the aircraft’s undercarriage was not lifted when it tried to land.
This could have happened because of hydraulic issues, though a bird strike, one of the speculated reasons behind why the plane crashed, “would not have probably caused that issue,” he said.
The death toll of the plane crash in Muan, South Korea, has risen again, to 176, according to the fire service.
Among these 176 people, 82 are male and 83 are female, while the gender of 11 victims has not yet been confirmed.
This means that three of the 181 people who were on board the plane are still missing.
Two crew members of the Jeju Air aircraft survived the crash, the fire service previously said.
?Both black boxes from the South Korean airliner that crashed at the Muan International Airport on Sunday have been recovered, including flight data and voice record, according to a briefing from the Land Ministry.
The ministry said that it appears from videos that the plane’s landing gears were not out, but they will investigate further using flight data from the recording device.
Runways at the international airport will be closed until 5 a.m. local time January 1 (3 p.m. ET December 31), the ministry said.
Rescue work is still underway, the ministry added.
The investigation into what caused the South Korean plane crash may take up to three years, the country’s land ministry said in a briefing.
Investigations into commercial flights can take between six months and three years, it said.
Considering the plane was manufactured outside of South Korea, investigators will need to consult the manufacturers of major parts of the plane, which might mean the investigation takes a long time, the land ministry said. (CNN)
The mother of a black woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in Jackson, Mississippi, has told the BBC she is still waiting for answers from officials more than a month later.
Her demands have been echoed by a community in the southern US state that has been left shocked and angry.
After weeks of silence, police on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that they were investigating the death of Tasia Fortune, 29, as a potential homicide – while clarifying that her official cause of death has yet to be confirmed.
Authorities discovered Fortune’s body on 3 August, hanging from a tree in the lot of an abandoned home.
Local concern over her death has been heightened by the fact that the state has a dark history of racial violence and lynchings.
The majority-black city has been left on edge. As the question lingers as to how Fortune died, petitions online signed by tens of thousands of people have called for more transparency, and members of US Congress have asked for federal intervention.
“It’s making me angry,” Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, said. “What is the hold up?”
Spivey described desperate attempts to understand the status of the investigation and how multiple enquiries to police had gone unanswered.
The first update she had received from authorities in weeks came in a public city meeting on Tuesday evening as Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney discussed the case and said the department “has been investigating this case from day one as a homicide”.
Brackney, in a statement to the BBC, elaborated and said the department always treats any pending death case as a “potential homicide” so that crucial evidence is not lost as police wait on autopsy results.
The department, though, had only previously described the case as a death investigation.
Tuesday’s statement from Brackney said “we are conducting the investigation at the highest appropriate level while we await the medical examiner’s findings”, which would include an official cause and manner of death.
The medical examiner’s office said it would not comment on the pending case.
Christy Spivey Tasia Fortune holds a finger to her lips and smiles in a family handout photoChristy Spivey
Spivey last saw her daughter alive on 26 July, when Fortune had travelled from Mississippi, where she had lived for roughly the last decade, to Kentucky, where Spivey lives, for a family reunion.
The next time she saw her daughter – in a funeral home, days before her burial – she could barely look at her body.
“I didn’t look straight at her. Her daddy did,” she said. “I kind of looked from the side.”
Spivey remembered their last conversation. “She was talking about, you know, maybe even coming home,” she explained.
Fortune’s death has left the community concerned that racial violence in Mississippi could be on the rise again. And in the absence of concrete details about the case, their suspicions are left to fester.
Fortune’s death was the third incident in Mississippi in less than a year where police found someone dead and hanged from a tree.
The other two bodies – one black male, one white – were discovered in September 2025, on the exact same day.
Both were ruled a suicide, though the mother of one of the deceased – Trey Reed – contests those findings.
Fed-up residents have launched an online petition, which has gathered more than 50,000 signatures, for an independent investigation into the state’s chief medical examiner, Dr Staci Turner, over the handling of a recent spate of cases involving people of colour. Another petition asks for the FBI to launch an investigation into Fortune’s death
The BBC has asked Turner for comment.
Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes has also expressed concerns about the police investigation, saying he’d been outside the home where Fortune was thought to have lived multiple times and has never seen officers.
“All cases are important, but this one – a hanging in Mississippi – should rise to the top of the food chain,” Stokes said.
He told the BBC he sent letters to both federal prosecutors at the Mississippi US attorney’s office and the FBI weeks ago, urging that the investigation was “in dire need of assistance”. He has yet to hear back from either.
“Nothing from nobody,” Stokes said. “It’s like nobody cares.”
The BBC has reached out to the Mississippi US attorney’s office and the local FBI office for comment.
US Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has similarly requested federal intervention. In a letter to the US Department of Justice, she asked for an investigation into recent deaths in Mississippi – including that of Tasia Fortune – calling them “possible cases of modern-day lynchings”. She cited the state’s “appalling historical reputation of violent terrorism against black Americans”.
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In addition to Mississippi, there have been multiple other cases nationally of black Americans found hanged from trees, including four in North Carolina this year alone. Three were ruled a suicide. An autopsy is pending for the fourth death.
The BBC has reached out to the justice department for comment.
Stokes is clear that he does not know whether Fortune’s death was a lynching, or whether race played a part at all. Nor does he care. He just wants answers.
Brandon King, president of the student National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter at nearby Jackson State University, said the mystery of Fortune’s death, combined with minimal updates from police, has led him and others to be “extra cautious” around campus.
The feeling, King said, was that “hey, you could be next. This is in Jackson. This is in your backyard”.
The thought is extra worrying, he continued, because “this is supposed to be the capital. This is where I’m supposed to feel the most safe”.
As for Spivey, she cried before heading to a funeral home for her daughter, dreading having to fill out a death certificate and decide whether to cremate or bury her firstborn child.
She wanted to cremate her daughter but decided, in the end, for a burial. She said she was holding out hope there would be updates in the investigation, which might mean needing to exhume her corpse. BBC
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Rescue teams with search dogs continued to look through mud, rocks and debris on the Nepal -China border Tuesday for thousands of people missing a week after the catastrophic flash floods that tore through Himalayan communities and left more than 1,000 dead.
As police in Kathmandu buried dozens of bodies in multiple trenches, Nepal’s disaster agency said 1,003 deaths had been counted there, with 3,916 people missing, including 583 foreign nationals. China reported 16 deaths and 546 missing, including 261 foreigners, as of Sunday.
The scale of the Aug. 26 disaster is hampering rescue efforts, with landslides, destroyed roads and widespread damage cutting off remote areas.
Crews faced challenging conditions as they searched unstable terrain and piles of debris, raising fears the death toll could rise as rescuers reach isolated communities.
Race to reach missing hydropower workers
Rescuers are racing to reach hundreds of workers believed to be trapped inside tunnels at hydropower projects in Nepal damaged by the floods. About 900 workers are missing from 12 projects, with roughly 500 believed to be trapped in tunnels, according to local authorities.
Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, Nepal’s army spokesperson, said teams assisted by foreign experts were working at several hydropower projects. Images released by the army showed rescue teams entering debris-filled tunnels and wading through mud and water in the search for signs of life.
On the Chinese side, rescue crews scoured areas hit by mudslides, particularly around the Gyirong Port border crossing, which was destroyed.
Some rescuers, aided by search dogs, searched gaps among rocks and debris for signs of life. Other teams used heavy machinery to clear a major highway leading to Gyirong Port, hoping to clear the way for equipment, personnel and supplies to reach the disaster zone, according to China’s state-run Global Times newspaper.
Mass burials of unidentified bodies in Kathmandu
In Kathmandu, police worked in heavy rain on Tuesday to bury dozens of bodies in multiple trenches next to a forested area.
Barbed wire was erected around the site, while blue numbered markers identified the graves of people whose names were not yet known.
Authorities in Nepal have been burying bodies in temporary graves until they can be identified. They are preserving DNA samples, photographing distinguishing facial features and recording other identifying details.
Each body is assigned a reference number to help families identify and claim the remains later.
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Relief operations expanded to stranded communities
At least 11,814 people have been rescued so far, according to Nepalese authorities. Emergency crews used helicopters and other aircraft to reach stranded communities in areas where roads and bridges have been destroyed by the flooding and landslides.
Efforts are being stepped up to provide assistance to survivors in areas where roads and other transportation routes had been damaged or cut off.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, said a second batch of relief supplies was being sent to Nepal, including drones, DNA testing and water purification equipment. Chinese DNA testing experts will also help Nepal identify bodies, he said.
Bimal Sharma, a helicopter pilot who has been flying rescue and relief missions, said he was shocked to see the devastation in Timure, a border town close to Tibet that he has known for years.
“It felt like I was flying over an entirely different landscape,” said Sharma, adding that he has had little opportunity to speak with the people he rescued. “I can see the pain in their eyes. It’s heartbreaking,” he said.
Glacial collapse in the Himalayas
The disaster began in the Himalayas when a glacial collapse sent large amounts of rock, ice and meltwater into valleys below, triggering powerful floods downstream.
Scientists studying satellite imagery said the collapse appears to have involved the failure of bedrock beneath a glacier in the Himalayan region. The rockfall was powerful enough to register as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event.
The resulting surge of water and debris entered rivers that flow through valleys in Tibet and Nepal, causing them to rise rapidly. Floodwaters swept away homes, buildings, roads and bridges and carried mud and rocks downstream.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah said that the disaster highlighted the need for action to combat climate change.
“This incident has indicated that the risks we face in the Himalayan region are increasing with climate change,” Shah said in a social media post Monday night. “Therefore, this region must be alert, and at the same time, it is time for us to strongly raise the issue of disasters caused by climate change before the international community.”
Saaliq reported from New Delhi. Associated Press journalists Victoria Milko in Kathmandu, Nepal, E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Kanis Leung in Hong Kong and Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Canada has invited 1,000 candidates through its Express Entry system to apply for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class.
The invitation round was conducted on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, according to the latest ministerial instructions published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
The department said candidates required a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System score of 523 to receive an invitation.
“Number of invitations issued: 1,000,” the notice stated.
It added that candidates ranked among the first 1,000 eligible foreign nationals in the group were eligible to receive invitations.
The round was conducted at 10:13:44 UTC on August 18, with a tie-breaking rule of August 17, 2026, at 22:09:00 UTC.
The tie-breaking rule means that “If more than one candidate has the lowest score, the cut-off is based on the date and time they submitted their Express Entry profiles.”
The invitations were issued under the Canadian Experience Class, one of the classes managed through Canada’s Express Entry system.
The ministerial instructions, signed by Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Lena Metlege Diab, in Ottawa on August 18, stated that invitations could be issued between August 18 and August 19, 2026.
“Invitations may be issued to eligible foreign nationals who rank among the first 1,000 eligible foreign nationals in the group ranking,” the instructions stated.
Express Entry is Canada’s primary online system for managing permanent residence applications from skilled workers.
It covers three federal economic immigration programs: the Canadian Experience Class, the Federal Skilled Worker Program, and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.
Candidates create profiles that are ranked using the Comprehensive Ranking System, which awards points for factors including age, education, language ability, work experience, and other human capital attributes.
The highest-ranked candidates are invited to apply in periodic rounds.
The Canadian Experience Class is designed for skilled workers who already have Canadian work experience and wish to become permanent residents. Eligibility generally requires at least one year (1,560 hours) of skilled work experience in Canada within the past three years in occupations under National Occupational Classification TEER categories 0, 1, 2, or 3, along with minimum language proficiency (Canadian Language Benchmark 7 for TEER 0 or 1 jobs, and CLB 5 for TEER 2 or 3).
There is no education requirement and no need to show settlement funds.
Applicants must plan to live outside Quebec.
The August 18 draw followed a pattern of frequent CEC-focused rounds in 2026. A previous Canadian Experience Class draw on August 5 issued 3,000 invitations with a lower CRS cut-off of 516.
The latest round’s reduced volume and higher cut-off of 523 mark one of the more selective CEC invitations so far this year.
As of mid-August 2026, IRCC had already issued well over 113,000 invitations through Express Entry, with a substantial share going to Canadian Experience Class candidates.
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