World Briefing: December 29, 2024

A passenger plane carrying 181 people crashed while landing at an airport in southwestern South Korea on Sunday. Officials said most of the people on board were presumed dead, even as two survivors were found and search efforts continued. The plane, operated by South Korea’s Jeju Air, had taken off from Bangkok and was landing at Muan International Airport when it crashed, local fire department officials said. Footage of the accident shows a white-and-orange plane speeding down a runway on its belly until it overshoots the runway, hitting a barrier and exploding into an orange fireball. Officials were investigating what caused the plane, a Boeing 737-800, to crash land, including why the landing gear malfunctioned, whether the plane had been struck by birds, or if it had been experiencing bad weather. As the plane was landing, the airport warned the plane about a potential bird strike, 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 said. As of Sunday evening, at least 176 people had been found dead, according to the National Fire Agency. At least two crew members had been rescued from the tail section of the aircraft, and rescuers continued searching through the wreckage. Lee Jeong-hyeon, an official in charge of search and rescue operations at the scene, said the plane had broken into so many pieces that only its tail was identifiable. “We could not recognize the rest of the fuselage,” he said - NYT

My analysis: extraordinary that in the span of less than a week, the commercial aviation sector has been hit by two crashes - involving airlines and aircraft with good safety records. On Christmas Day, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embrarer jet crashed in Kazakhstan after apparently being damaged by Russian air defence systems. And just a few days later (today), a Boeing 737-800 belonging to South Korean low cost carrier, Jeju Air, crashed upon landing - killing almost all of the 181 passengers and crew. Anyone who had flown through the region around this time of year would’ve noticed packed airplanes with many families enjoying time away from home.

Yet flying remains, by far, one of the safest forms of travel even as it expands by leaps and bounds. In both tragedies, relatives of the dead as well as the grieving nations should expect nothing less than a full and transparent investigation. Getting to the bottom of the cause of the two crashes could help to improve aviation safety. The sector is still trying to recover from the Covid pandemic, with the supply of pilots and aircraft struggling to meet demand .

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has apologised to the president of neighbouring Azerbaijan over the downing of a commercial airliner in Russian airspace, in which 38 people were killed - but stopped short of saying Russia was responsible. In his first comments on the Christmas Day crash, Putin said the “tragic incident” had occurred when Russian air defence systems were repelling Ukrainian drones. Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia must “stop spreading disinformation” about the strike. The plane is believed to have come under fire from Russian air defence as it tried to land in the Russian region of Chechnya - forcing it to divert across the Caspian Sea - BBC

Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former soccer player and right-wing populist, has been sworn in as Georgia’s new president amid a months long political crisis. Salome Zurabishvili, the outgoing head of state, on the same day left her residence in the presidential palace in the capital, Tbilisi, but said she remained the legitimate president. The pro-Western Zurabishvili, whose term ended on December 29, had said she would not step down. She claimed her successor -- chosen by an electoral college dominated by the ruling Georgian Dream -- is “illegitimate.” Georgia has been the scene of anti-government protests since Georgian Dream claimed victory in October parliamentary elections that were marred by instances of vote-buying, double-voting, physical violence, and intimidation - RFE/RL

Authorities in Finland have moved an impounded Russia-linked tanker closer to port after seizing control of the vessel earlier this week. The Eagle S is suspected of damaging the Estlink-2 power cable which runs under the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia by dragging its anchor along the seabed. The Estlink-2 power cable, which takes electricity from Finland to Estonia under the Baltic Sea, went down on Wednesday but there was little impact to services. The Helsinki police department say the vessel, which was boarded on Thursday, was moved to inner anchorage near Porvoo as a better place to carry out an investigation. The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands but has been described by Finnish customs and EU officials as being part of Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers shipping oil and gas in defiance of international sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine - Euronews

Lured by cheap prices, a safe atmosphere, plenty of historical and natural attractions and world renowned cuisine, Vietnam is enjoying a huge wave of foreign tourists this holiday season. That was evident from the scene at the international airport terminal in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) where arriving passengers experienced waits of more than an hour to clear immigration. Like many popular destinations in Southeast Asia, the infrastructure in the ground of struggling to keep up with massive demand - fueled by the availability of low cost seats. But in cities such as Hanoi, that also means jaw dropping prices for everything from taxis to high quality accommodation.

This Briefing is reprinted with the author’s permission. Please find the original here.