Seven days of national mourning declared after flight from Bangkok crash-lands at Muan International Airport, killing all but two crew members.

At least 179 people have been killed after a passenger plane skidded and crashed while trying to land at Muan International Airport in South Korea in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.

The accident occurred on Sunday at 9:03am local time (00:03 GMT) as the Jeju Air flight, carrying 175 passengers and six crew from the Thai capital Bangkok, landed at Muan International Airport about 290km (180 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul.

The National Fire Agency confirmed that 179 people – 85 women, 84 men and 10 others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable – have been killed, and two people have been rescued – both crew members. The fire that engulfed the plane has been extinguished, the agency said.

The agency reported that the crash is believed to have been caused by “contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear” as the plane attempted to land at the airport.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, said the accident has been declared the worst in history on South Korean soil.

“Images which have been on the media here do appear to show the plane landing on its belly, skidding along the runway, followed then by a huge explosion,” he said.

“Eyewitness accounts have talked then about a series of explosions and certainly images that we have been seeing have shown a catastrophic fire,” our correspondent added.

McBride said only 65 victims out of 179 have so far been identified because of the huge fire on the plane.

The South Korean government has declared seven days of national mourning over the plane crash.

The plane, a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet, was reported to be carrying two Thai passengers and the rest were believed to be South Koreans.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has expressed deep condolences to the families of the crash victims.

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been ordered to investigate if Thai passengers were on the plane and to provide “assistance immediately”, the prime minister said in a post on social media.

One photo shared by local media showed thick clouds of black smoke coming out of the plane. Another showed the tail section of the jet engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby.

The country’s News1 agency reported that a passenger texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing. The person’s final message was, “Should I say my last words?”

South Korea’s acting President Choi Sang-mok, meanwhile, ordered “all-out efforts for rescue operations” at Muan airport.

“All related agencies… must mobilise all available resources to save the personnel,” he told officials in a statement.

Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest low-cost carriers, which was set up in 2005, issued an apology for the crash, saying it would “do everything in our power in response to this accident”.

The crash is the first fatal accident for Jeju Air, though in August 2007, a Bombardier Q400 operated by the airline and carrying 74 passengers came off the runway due to strong winds at the southern Busan Gimhae airport, resulting in a dozen injuries.

The incident came as South Korea is embroiled in a huge political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies