MYSTERY surrounds the cause of a South Korean plane crash that has left 179 people presumed dead.
A survivor has told rescuers smoke came from one engine before it exploded – with the pilot issuing a Mayday call just a minute after.
The crew member has now been sent to hospital after they miraculously survived, reports Chosun.
Witnesses on the ground also heard engine “explosions” and saw sparks fly just minutes before the disaster that saw the Boeing skid off the runway and explode.
A shocking video has emerged showing the flight hit a flock of birds and a white plume emerge from the right jet just moments before the disaster.
The Jeju Air plane then tried to land on its belly – hitting the tarmac without wheels and skidding off the runway into an embankment.
Lee Jeong-hyun, the head of the Muan Fire Department, briefed Korean media following the tragedy and “estimated to be the occurrence of a bird strike or bad weather.”
But there is no clear reason why a bird strike would have caused the plane’s landing gear to fail.
Footage of the moment of the disaster appeared to show a clear, blue sky.
A timeline of the moments before the disaster has now started to emerge.
Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 from Bangkok was carrying 175 passengers and six crew from Bangkok to Muan International Airport.
At 8.57am local time – six minutes before the flight crash landed – the pilot received a bird strike warning from the airport.
Then one minute later, the pilot made a Mayday distress call.
The plane tried to land on runway one at 9am, but it couldn’t do so.
Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the tower then gave the pilot permission to try again on a different runway.
At 9.03am, the plane tried to land on runway 19 with the pilot ultimately deciding to complete a no-wheels landing.
But that ended in disaster with the wheels not deploying and the aircraft exploding when it hit a bank.
Witnesses who spoke to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said they saw sparks and heard an explosion while the plane was still in the air.
One said he saw “black smoke billowing into the sky” after hearing a “loud explosion”.
Another claimed: “I saw the plane descending and thought it was about to land when I noticed a flash of light.
“Then there was a loud bang followed by smoke in the air, and then I heard a series of explosions.”
The black box has now been recovered from the wreckage as investigators look to confirm what happened.
But that investigation could take several years as a probe will have too comb through the burnt wreckage.
Experts told CNN that Korean officials should not be “speculating” about what caused the “perplexing” crash.
Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline News, said the 737-800 is “the most reliable aircraft in the world”.
He said: “Everybody knows how it works. And it works really, really well. And the maintenance done in [South] Korea is as good as it gets around the world.
“It’s a little bit unclear whether or not the undercarriage collapsed on landing or whether the undercarriage was not deployed at all.
“This is a really serious issue that obviously investigators will be very much focused on.”
Jeju Air’s boss said the plane had shown no signs of issues prior to the disaster.
Only two people from the 181 passengers and crew are believed to have survived with 179 feared dead.
Most of the passengers were Koreans who were on a Christmas package holiday to Thailand.
Soldiers and emergency services are now combing the runway and surrounding fields to find clues for what caused the crash.
The black box flight recorder has been recovered from the wreck with officials probing the cause of the disaster.
