Two survivors and 177 people were killed in a plane crash at a South Korean airport

SEOUL, South Korea – Two survivors and 177 people were killed when a commercial airliner crashed at a South Korean airport on Sunday, officials said.

Jeju Air Flight 2216 ran off the runway after landing at Muan International Airport in South Korea. and caught fire after the crash, a spokesman for the country's National Fire Agency said.

The Boeing 787-800 took off from Bangkok, Thailand shortly after 2 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Saturday), according to flight tracking platform FlightAware. It was carrying 175 passengers and six crew members, it said Director of the Aviation Policy Division of South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Jo Choon-wan.

At least two of the passengers were Thai, Ju said.

Follow live updates of this developing story here.

“We suspect that the crash may have been caused by a faulty landing gear,” Muan Fire Department Chief Lee Jung-hyun said at a briefing. Lee said bird strike and inclement weather also played a role, but cautioned against the exact cause still under investigation.

“The pilot announced in May after issuing a bird strike warning,” Ju said, adding that the plane was “completely destroyed” in the crash.

The plane skidded along the runway and exploded when it hit a barrier, video confirmed by NBC News showed.The tail of the plane appeared to be intact as smoke engulfed the rest of the plane.

Joo also outlined the sequence of events leading up to the disaster.

The plane initially tried to land on the airport's runway 1, but the pilot was told to land instead on runway 19 in the opposite direction because of a bird strike warning, Ju said.

A minute later, the pilot sent a may signal after the bird strike and attempted to land on runway 19. The plane was unable to lower the landing gear after crossing the runway. Joe said he hit a safety system called a localizer that guides the landing and crashed into a wall.

The crash happened around 9:03 a.m. local time (7:03 p.m. Saturday), Lee said.Firefighters extinguished the initial blaze at 9:46 a.m. local time, a fire department spokesman said.

The country's national fire agency later confirmed the death of 177 people, making it the deadliest air disaster of the year and the first fatal accident in the history of the low-cost airline, which was founded in 2005.

At least 77 of those killed are women, 79 are men. The gender of the other victims was not immediately known.

Two crew members, a man and a woman, survived with moderate injuries but were conscious, Ju said. Officials initially said the surviving couple was a passenger and a crew member.

The plane was “completely destroyed by fire,” Ju said at a briefing, adding that investigators had recovered both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, which would be key to understanding the final moments of the fatal landing.

A full investigation, he said, could take six months to three years.

The plane's manufacturer, Boeing, apologized and said it was in contact with the airline.In a statement, Jeju Air apologized to “all those affected by the incident.”

“Above all, we extend our heartfelt condolences and apologies to the passengers who tragically lost their lives in the accident and their bereaved families,” Jeju Air CEO Kim Ee-Bai said, taking “full responsibility for this tragedy” and adding that the airline would support the passengers' families.

South Korea's acting president, Choi Sang-mok, called for an immediate and full mobilization effort “to put out the fire and save people,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

In a text briefing from the presidential office, it was announced that an emergency meeting is being held in connection with the accident.

In a statement, the country's Ministry of National Defense said it had called in an emergency response team and deployed military personnel and equipment to provide support.

Choi later arrived at the site and declared it a “special disaster zone,” while offering condolences to the victims and their families and saying his government would “thoroughly investigate” what caused the crash.

“Moving forward, the government will focus on rescuing the survivors, managing the recovery of the victims, preparing funeral arrangements, providing comfort and support to the grieving families, and providing clear explanations of the situation,” said Park Sang-woo, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

More than 1,500 crew members from multiple agencies are conducting search and recovery efforts, Zhou said.

The airport is located 180 miles south of Seoul.

Stella Kim reports from Seoul, South Korea and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.