2 survivors recovering as South Korean officials probe Jeju Air plane crash

SEOUL and LONDON -- The two survivors of South Korea's deadliest plane crash in decades were recovering at separate hospitals in Seoul on Monday, as investigators began far-reaching probes into both the fatal crash and the country's broader aviation operations.

The only survivors, a man and a woman, were among the six crew members onboard the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 when it skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames on Sunday morning, officials said. A total of 181 people were onboard.

The man who survived, who was receiving treatment for fractures in an intensive care unit, was alert and speaking with medical staff, Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, said at a press conference on Monday.

The man, a flight attendant identified only by his surname, Lee, had "already been rescued" when he woke up, the hospital official said. "(Lee’s) fully able to communicate," Woong added. “There's no indication yet of memory loss or such."

The woman, 25-year-old flight attendant named Koo, was also recovering, though not in intensive care, hospital staff and officials with the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport said. Neither survivor had life-threatening injuries, the ministry said, adding that both had awoken in the hospital without a clear recollection of what had happened after they heard a blast during the landing.

Authorities were working on Monday to confirm the identities of more than three dozen of the 179 people who were killed when the plane crash-landed. The bodies of 141 people had been identified through their fingerprints or DNA, but 38 of the dead remained unidentified, local officials said.

Officials had recovered the flight's data recorders from the wreckage and were releasing information. The acting president, Choi Sang-mok, who has been leading the country since Friday, ordered an emergency safety inspection of South Korea's entire air fleet and operations.

The transport ministry said it will conduct a full inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in use in South Korea. Six low-cost airlines operate a total of 101 of that model aircraft, including the 39 operated by Jeju Air. But the airline said it would not suspend operations of those planes.

"There are no plans to suspend operations, but they will examine those parts once more and check them thoroughly during the inspection process," said Song Kyung-hoon, head of Jeju Air's Management Support Division.

Flight 7C2216 had taken off from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand before dawn on Monday, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracker.

As the aircraft approached South Korea's Muan International Airport at 8:54 a.m., the control tower gave it permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the transport ministry.

Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, "Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around," the ministry said.

The plane ascended and made a 180-degree before descending from the north side, crash-landing and crashing into the wall at 9:03 a.m., the ministry said.

The official death toll, provided by the National Fire Agency, climbed steadily in the hours after the crash. By nightfall on Sunday, local officials said all but two of the 181 people onboard had died in the crash.

The aircraft's voice and data recorders, or "black boxes," were recovered from the wreckage, the Air and Railway Investigation Committee said. The flight data recorder was found partially damaged and the cockpit voice recorder was collected intact, officials said.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it would send an investigative team -- which was to include members from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration -- to assist South Korean officials. The results of that investigation will be released by the Republic of Korea's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, or ARAIB.

Efforts were being made to speed up the identifications of the remaining 38 people who died, but some bodies were too damaged for their fingerprints to be used.

Others were the bodies of minors, whose prints were not on file to compare, authorities said. According to the flight manifest, the youngest passenger on board was 3 years old. The manifest recorded five children under 10 years old on the flight.

Jeju Air, which operates an all-Boeing fleet, is a popular low-cost carrier in South Korea. The airline operated about 217 flights a day and carried more than 12 million people during 2023.

More than 68,000 Jeju Air tickets have been canceled since the crash, according to Jeju Air. All will be fully refunded, the airline said.

ABC News' Sam Sweeney, Hakyung Kate Lee, Jack Moore, Will Gretsky, Victoria Beaule and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.