Two flight attendants who survived a deadly plane crash in South Korea are recovering in separate hospitals in Seoul as investigators begin a deeper probe into the incident.
According to ABC News and NDTV, the two survivors, including one man and one woman, were part of the six-member crew on the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people.
On December 29, the plane skidded off the runway while landing, hit a wall, and burst into flames, killing 179 people. In videos, it appears the plane attempted a belly landing. A preliminary investigation found that the crash was caused by a malfunctioning landing gear.
The director of Ewha Womans University Hospital in Seoul said on December 30 that the male flight attendant who survived is conscious and able to talk to medical staff. "He has no signs of memory loss." He is being treated for a fracture in the intensive care unit.
Hospital staff and officials from the South Korean Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure said the surviving woman, a 25-year-old flight attendant named Kwoon, had also recovered. The ministry said both survivors suffered no life-threatening injuries and had no clear memory of what happened after they heard an explosion as the plane landed.
The two surviving flight attendants were both sitting in the back of the plane, which is statistically considered the safest place on a commercial flight. According to a study published in Time magazine in 2015, the back seat of a plane is the safest place in the event of an accident. Accordingly, people sitting in the back seat of a plane have a 32% mortality rate, the middle seat has a 39% mortality rate, and the front seat has a 38% mortality rate.
According to the Korea Times, after being rescued, the male flight attendant - identified as Lee, 32 years old, kept asking: "What happened?" and "Why am I here?"
VN (according to Vietnamnet)