Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Since the Jeju Air plane crashed at Muan International Airport on Sunday, hundreds of the victims' family members have camped at the airport.

Bereaved families are waiting on the release of their loved ones' bodies, and have expressed frustration at a lack of timely updates from Jeju Air and government officials.

All 175 passengers and four members of the crew were killed in the crash, two flight staff survived and remain in hospital.

A period of seven days’ mourning has been announced by the country’s acting president Choi Sang-mok, as flowers have been laid at the scene.

Investigators are looking into the plane’s black box recordings but decoding them may be delayed due to damage, as the search for the cause of the crash continues.

In addition, a "comprehensive inspection" of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft is underway, and a team from the US is set to join South Korea’s aviation authority in its investigation.

We’re now closing our live coverage of this story, but the BBC has more on the victims’ families’ anxious wait after the deadliest aviation disaster on South Korea soil.

Image source, Reuters

We'll soon be closing our live coverage but before we go, the BBC has more on this story:

From the runway: The BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports live from the airfield, piecing together what steps will come next as investigators search debris at the scene.

What we know: A full read on what we know about the crash so far - including who the victims are and how officials are responding.

A bird strike? There’s been strong speculation that the crash was caused by a so-called “bird strike” - find out why air traffic control warned pilots about avian activity here.

Mourning families: Hear what families - who have gathered in Muan airport - have to say about their anxious wait for the release of their loved ones' bodies.

Kelly Ng
BBC News

Image source, EPA

Acting President Choi Sang-mok has has ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country's entire airline operations.

Muan has also been declared a special disaster zone, which makes central government funding available to the local government and victims.

All flights to and from Muan International Airport have been cancelled.

A national seven-day period of mourning has been declared, and New Year's Day celebrations in the country are likely to be cancelled or scaled down.

Aircraft maker Boeing has said it is in touch with Jeju Air and stands "ready to support them".

Jeju Air has apologised to families, with its chief executive saying in a news conference that the airline had no history of accidents. It is believed that Sunday's crash has been the airline's only fatal accident since it was launched in 2005.

• You can read more about the crash, and what has happened since, in our explainer piece

The flight that crashed on Sunday, killing 175 passengers and four crew members, touched down around a third of the way down the runway without its landing gear down.

After skidding along the runway, the plane collided with a concrete mound about 250m away from the end of Muan International Airport's runway.

Image source, Dirk Weinrich

The plane that crashed at Muan airport on Sunday had operated 13 flights in the 48 hours prior to the crash, the Yonhap news agency reports., external

It says industry sources have raised concerns about whether Jeju Air may have overextended itself by scheduling excessive charter flights during the peak end-of-year season. This overextension of the plane's capacity would be dependent on the the type of aircraft and length of the routes it takes.

Regional airports in South Korea are reliant on charter flights operated by low-cost airlines, this type of airline tends to have a higher utilisation rate - a measure of how often a plane is used.

The report from Yonhap, citing Jeju Air's own data, says the airline had the highest average monthly flight time among the six domestic low-cost airlines in South Korea, between July and September this year.

Flight 2216 was carrying passengers who boarded at Bangkok, Thailand, when it crash-landed at Muan airport. The airport is located in the south west of South Korea, and has only one runway.

Now, aerial pictures show the impact of the crash, and the size of the emergency response at the air field.

Scattered debris from the plane and the path the plane took as it skidded off the runway into a concrete mound can also be seen in the aftermath of the crash.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

The ongoing investigation into yesterday's deadly crash could be delayed by damaged black boxes - flight recording devices. In the meantime, investigators are considering the significance of the location of a concrete mound that the aircraft collided with at the end of the runway.

This concrete structure holds a navigation system that assists aircraft landings - known as a localiser - according to the Yonhap News Agency,

South Korea’s transport minister says some of the country's other airports have the same localisers installed with concrete exteriors.

The four metre-tall mound of concrete is covered with dirt and located about 250m (820ft) from the end of the runway. Video footage shows that the plane crash landed part way down the runway before hitting the mound.

Officials have not suggested that the concrete structure is dangerous, or a factor in the crash, but Reuters news agency has spoken to a flight safety expert who called the structure "unusual".

Christian Beckert, who is also a Lufthansa pilot based in Munich, says: "Normally, on an airport with a runway at the end, you don't have a wall."

Many questions remain over exactly what happened in the minutes before the deadly Jeju Air plane crash at South Korea's Muan International Airport on Sunday.

A bird strike has been given as a possible contributing factor, but it's unclear how this might have caused the aircraft's landing gear to remain closed, leaving the jet to career down runway before colliding with a concrete structure.

Here's a visual guide to everything we know:

"This is one of the most perplexing crashes I have ever seen. Nothing about it makes any sense," aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas tells the BBC.

Speaking from Perth, he notes that while a bird strike may have played a role, once the pilot issued a mayday call the air traffic control data cut out.

The sudden loss of data - which allows the flights to be tracked - "indicates an electrical fault of some kind", Thomas suggests.

Following the call, the plane was also allowed to land in the opposite direction to usual.

But the wheels were up, the flaps not set correctly and it landed halfway down the runway before careering into the localiser and exploding, he says.

Thomas says there are workarounds if an electrical or hydraulic problem arises, but these were not used.

"It just doesn’t make any sense. We're going to have to wait for voice recorder details before we can get a handle on what on earth went on."

Image source, Reuters

Since yesterday's fatal incident, Jeju Air's website has remained blank, with a black banner tribute at the top of the site.

The banner reads: "We deeply apologise to those affected by the incident. We will make every effort to resolve the situation. We sincerely regret the distress caused."

Now, Jeju Air passengers have been cancelling tickets for future flights, according to Yonhap news agency.

It reports that some 68,000 flight reservations had been cancelled as of 13:00 local time (04:00 GMT), including 33,000 domestic flights and 34,000 international journeys.

The news agency adds that travel agencies across South Korea are reporting a high number of cancellations from passengers, as well as a drop in the number of bookings.

After yesterday's crash, South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok declared seven days of national mourning.

At the local sports centre in Muan, mourners laid white chrysanthemum flowers, which symbolise grief in Korean culture.

Tributes have also been left to the 179 victims at the scene of the crash, where families await the release of their loved ones' bodies.

As the mourning period begins, Seoul city has suspended the permit of a cruise company who went ahead with planned fireworks last night, despite being told to cancel them out of respect.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

It's just turned 20:15 local time in South Korea. Here's the latest:

• Officials examine debris: Investigations are continuing into the night at Muan International Airport in South Korea, following a Jeju Air plane crash in which 179 people died
• Families' frustration: Family members are gathered at the airport waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be released - recovery teams say they are taking their time to avoid making any mistakes
• Calls for support: A representative for the bereaved families, who also lost his brother in the crash, is pushing for more support from the country's government and airline Jeju Air
• Mood is muted: The atmosphere in the airport is one of "deep devastation...grief, shock", according to a South Korean journalist - the BBC's Jake Kwon describes it as "muted and sombre"
• Unanswered questions: A bird strike has been identified as a possible factor in the deadly collision - but many questions remain over exactly what happened in the final minutes of the flight

Image source, Getty Images

As we bring you updates on authorities' challenge to identify those killed in yesterday's crash, we're also hearing stories from the family members left behind.

Earlier, one man described how he had lost three relatives in the incident, while others reportedly passed out and wailed as the names of the deceased were read out at the airport.

One woman, Ms Yoo, explained how her brother is one of the 179 victims.

"He went to an event in (the province of) Jeollanam-do with former work colleagues," she says.

"It's heart-breaking. Unexpected things happened. My brother was such a good son to my 97-year-old mother. She couldn't sleep, I felt so sorry for her. She has been crying all day. She says she misses him already."

We've just reported that DNA samples "will not be immediate". Officials have been collecting saliva samples from family members gathered at Muan Airport to help identify bodies of victims. Other victims have been identified by their fingerprints.

Authorities have so far identified 141 bodies.

Five of the people who died were children under the age of 10. The youngest passenger was a three-year-old boy and the oldest was 78, authorities said, citing the passenger manifest.

South Korea's National Fire Agency said two members of flight crew - a man and a woman - survived the crash. They were found in the tail side of the aircraft after the crash and taken to hospital, it said.

The man has woken up and is "fully able to communicate," according to Yonhap, which cites the director of the Seoul hospital where he is being treated.

Image source, Reuters

The head of the investigation into the plane crash, Na Won-Oh, has called for patience as testing on victims' bodies is carried out.

"The National Forensic Service (NFS) is focusing its full efforts on this," he says. "But DNA analysis is not as immediate as taking a fingerprint and getting an instant result.

"Samples need to be collected, cultured, and then analysed to produce results. This means that each step requires physical time to complete."

As South Korea's interim president meets with victims families', their representative is pushing for more support from the country's government.

Park Han Shin's brother died in the crash, and he is now representing the families of the other 178 who died. He has demanded that more experts be brought in to help with identification.

"We want [the government] to recover our families 100% or at least 80% as soon as possible," he tells reporters.

And, with some families losing multiple members in the crash, the representative says compensation from Jeju Air is needed immediately.

"The only way for bereaved families to feel that (Jeju Air) has done everything it can is to help bereaved families financially," he explains.

"Parents of a family have passed away. There are only kids left and how can they live on their own? This is something neither the province officials nor the government can help with."

The atmosphere at Muan airport - the site of the deadly Jeju Air plane crash - is one of "deep devastation", South Korean journalist Nemo Kim tells the BBC.

There is a "deep sense of grief, shock", she says, recalling how the family members of the deceased were "wailing and passing out" as the names of the deceased were read out at the airport.

Speaking from the South Korean capital, Seoul - where she has now returned after reporting from the airport - Kim says the bereaved are also frustrated at the lack of "timely updates" from Jeju Air.

She says the families feel the airline is prioritising "media damage control" by holding a press conference in Seoul rather than addressing their concerns on site.

Jeju Air previously apologised to families, with its chief executive saying in a news conference that the airline had no history of accidents.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

In the aftermath of the plane crash, officials have been searching through the debris as an investigation into what caused the fatal incident has been launched - with assistance from the US.

Reports have been circulating that a bird strike, a collision between a plane in flight and a bird, is a possible factor. At 08:59 yesterday morning, as we've just reported in our timeline, air traffic control gave a cautionary warning about bird activity, minutes later the plane crash-landed.

Video footage shows that the plane touched down without wheels or any other landing gear and skidded down the runway.

When a plane crashes, black boxes - sometimes known as flight recorders - are the key source of information for investigators.

These recorders store data including fuel, speed and trajectory as well as conversations within the cockpit and with air traffic control.

An investigator has suggested this data may take up to a month to decode due to damage.

Image source, Reuters

It was just after 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT) yesterday when news broke of a plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea.

Here’s how events unfolded at the crash scene, where 179 people were killed:

08:54: Muan airport air traffic control authorises flight 7C2216 to land on runway 01

08:57: Air traffic control gives a cautionary advisory about “bird activity”

08:59: The aircraft reports a bird strike, and declares a “Mayday” emergency

09:01: Air traffic control authorises the aircraft to land in a different spot - on runway 19 - approaching from the opposite end of the airport’s single runway

09:02: The flight makes contact with the ground about a third of the way down the runway. Moments later, air traffic control alerts the crash bell at the airport’s fire rescue unit

09:03: Flight 7C2216 crashes into an embankment after overshooting the runway

09:23: A male victim is rescued and transported to a temporary medical facility

09:38: Muan airport is closed

09:50: A second victim - who we now know to be female - is rescued from the tail section of the plane and taken to hospital

21:15: After updates on the death tally through the day, it’s confirmed that all 175 passengers on board were killed, along with four flight staff