The Boeing 737-800 is used in a wide variety of ways

The crash of Jeju Air Flight 7C2216: A spherical, multi-component, high-energy, low-cost South Korean airline

South Korea has been dealing with a political crisis at the highest levels. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached this month after a short-lived martial law decree shocked and angered the nation, wrote on social media on Sunday that he was devastated by the accident. The acting president of South Korea said the country would observe a weeklong period of mourning.

Jeju Air apologized for the crash in a brief statement. The crash on Sunday appears to be the first fatal crash for the airline, a low-cost South Korean carrier that flies to dozens of countries in Asia.

Korean Air was involved in the worst crash since 1997 in Guam, when it slammed into a hill. That crash killed 229 of the 254 people on board.

The plane, operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air, had taken off from thailand and was going to make a landing at the Muan International Airport. The video shows a white-and-orange plane speeding down a runway on its belly and overshooting the runway before it explodes into an orange fireball.

The official in charge of search and rescue operations at the scene said that the plane had broken into many pieces.

More than 1,500 people were deployed to help search the wreckage. The names of the dead that had been confirmed by relatives were listed in the airport by official as investigators worked to identify them.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216 had 175 passengers and six crew members on board. The Muan airport was filled with hundreds of people waiting to find out about their loved ones.

The airport in Muan had warned the plane’s pilots about a potential bird strike as they were landing, said Ju Jong-wan, a director of aviation policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The plane issued a mayday alert shortly afterward, then crash-landed, he added, saying later that the plane’s black boxes — which should help determine the cause of the crash — have been recovered.

Two crew members on the plane were saved from the back of the plane, but by Sunday the other 178 people on board were dead. Officials were investigating what caused the tragedy, including why the plane’s landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned, whether birds had struck the jet, or if bad weather had been a factor.

The worst aviation disaster in almost three decades took place in southwestern South Korea on Sunday when a passenger plane crashed, killing almost all of the 181 people on board.

But Mr. Meshkati and other aviation experts cautioned against rushing to judgment about such incidents. Crashes are often caused by a number of factors that can take years to uncover.

Mr. Meshkati said that the landing gear of the line is well designed and has a good history of reliability, though poor upkeep could cause it not to deploy correctly. “Maintenance is really one of the most important causes of aviation accidents,” he said.

Airline Flights at Muan International Airport: The Boeing737-800 Class of Next-Generation 717s is Popular in China, Europe and North America

Aviation is not uncommon with bird strikes. In some cases, they have resulted in cracked windshields. Some airports deploy falcons and take other measures to keep their skies clear of birds. Muan International Airport, where the crash occurred, uses measures such as playing audio of distress calls to disperse birds as well as shooting them, according to the Korean Office of Civil Aviation.

Over 30,000 passenger planes are available for purchase in the world, according to a data provider. More than 4,000 are Boeing 737-800s. The Next-Generation 717 was involved in two accidents over the course of five years, including one which led to a global grounding of the Max fleet.

The plane that is in question is very safe and has a good safety record, said a University of Southern California professor who has studied the safety history of the Boeing line.

Five airlines out of South Korea use the 737-800. The plane is popular in Asia, Europe and North America, and Boeing has delivered about 5,000 to customers since 1998.