SURVIVOR OF PLANE CRASH SAYS 'WHEN I WOKE UP I HAD ALREADY BEEN RESCUED'

MUAN (South Korea),  Dec 30 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- One of two survivors of a plane crash that killed 179 others Sunday told doctors he had already been rescued when he woke up, Yonhap news agency reported.

The 33-year-old survivor, surnamed Lee, was a flight attendant on the Jeju Air plane that burst into flames after belly-landing at Muan International Airport on Sunday morning.

He was initially taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Mokpo, 311 kilometres south of Seoul, but later transferred to Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital in the capital city.

"When I woke up, I had already been rescued," he told doctors at the hospital, according to its director Ju Woong, who spoke during a press briefing.

Ju said he did not ask about the details of the accident as he believed it would not help the patient's recovery.

"He's fully able to communicate," Ju said. "There's no indication yet of memory loss or such."

The survivor is currently being treated in the intensive care unit after being diagnosed with multiple fractures.

Ju said he is under special care due to the possibility of aftereffects, including total paralysis.

Meanwhile, the other survivor, a 25-year-old flight attendant surnamed Koo, was being treated at Asan Medical Centre in eastern Seoul.

She was reportedly in stable condition though she had injured her ankle and head.

Medical staff declined to answer reporters' questions about her condition.

Yonhap on another news quoted the authorities confirming the passenger jet carrying 181 people belly-landed and exploded at an airport in South Korea's southwestern county of Muan on Sunday, killing 179 with two others having been rescued.

The accident happened at around 9 am when the Jeju Air plane, carrying 175 passengers and six crew members, veered off the runway while landing at Muan International Airport in the Muan county, South Jeolla Province, about 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul.

The plane skidded along the ground without its landing gear deployed, crashing into a concrete wall before bursting into flames with a deafening explosion.

It is the deadliest aviation accident ever on South Korean soil, and the third-most fatal by death toll involving a South Korean airline.

In 1983, a Soviet fighter jet shot down a Korean Air flight after it had strayed into Russian airspace, killing all 269 aboard. In 1997, a Korean Air aircraft crashed in Guam and left 225 people dead.

-- BERNAMA-YONHAP