MEZIESBLOG

Thailand’s prime minister has sent her condolences to the families of the deceased and injured.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra said she had instructed the foreign ministry to provide assistance and the ministry said in a statement it was in touch with South Korean authorities.

Two Thai women, aged 22 and 45, were on the flight, according to Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub.

Plane’s black box retrieved

The crashed plane’s black box has been retrieved, according to a senior Transport Ministry official.

Joo Jong-wan said the flight data recorder had been taken from the black box but workers are still looking for the cockpit voice recording device.

Transport Ministry officials have said their early assessment of communications records show the airport control tower issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land.

The airport control tower also gave the pilot permission to land in a different area.

But the pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before the plane went past the runway and skidded across a buffer zone and hit a wall, officials said.

Cause of crash ‘presumed to have been bird strike’, rescued crew member says

The cause of the crash is “presumed to have been a bird strike,” one of the two rescued members of crew have told local media – as the number confirmed dead increased to 167.

“Smoke came out of one of the engines and then it exploded,” Ms Ku, a female flight attendant in her 20s, told Yonhap news agency.

Another survivor, flight attendant Mr Lee, 33, said he did not remember the circumstances of the crash.

When he was being checked over by a doctor in hospital he reportedly asked: “Why did I end up here?”

He added: “I was wearing my seatbelt before landing, and it seemed like the plane had landed, but I don’t remember anything after that.”

He suffered a fractured left shoulder and head injuries, according to the Aju Business Daily newspaper.

Both survivors are in hospital and receiving treatment.

Families weep as names of victims read out

Families wept as the names of 22 victims identified so far were read out.

One relative stood at a microphone to ask for more information from authorities, saying: “My older brother died and I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know.”

Another asked journalists not to film, telling them: “We are not monkeys in a zoo. We are the bereaved families.”

At least 177 confirmed dead

At least 177 people were killed in the crash, the fire agency has said in its latest update.

Of those, 83 were women, 80 were men and emergency workers were unable to immediately identify the genders of 11 others.

The agency said it had deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the blaze after the crash.

Around 1,560 firefighters, police officers and other officials were sent to the site, it added.