The pilot of a plane which crashed in South Korea reported a bird strike and declared mayday minutes before it went down, it has been revealed. Just two of the 181 people on board the Jeju Air plane survived the flight from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in South Korea.

At 8.54 am local time on Sunday the plane’s pilot was given permission to land. However, just three minutes later, the airport’s control tower warned of the possibility of a bird strike. Then, a minute after that the captain sent a mayday signal. At 9.03 am the plane then failed a crash landing attempt, veering off the runway, slamming into a concrete wall and exploding into flames.