The only two survivors aboard the plane carrying 181 passengers that crashed in South Korea lucked out and had their lives spared because of their seating arrangement, according to news reports.
The fortunate flight attendants — a man and a woman — were reportedly seated in the tail section of the Jeju commercial airliner, which was landing at Muan International Airport after taking off from Bangkok, Thailand on Sunday.
When the plane touched down on the runway, it veered off and rammed into a wall, exploding into flames.
Muan firefighters responded and eventually extinguished the flames. The tail section was the only piece of the aircraft left intact, with the rest destroyed.
In 2015, Time magazine published Federal Aviation Administration data that revealed back seats — like those in the tail — are generally the safest in a plane crash.
Statistics show the seats in the rear third of the aircraft have a 32-percent fatality rate, as opposed to 39 percent and 38 percent in the middle third and front third, respectively.
According to The Korea Times, Lee Mo — one of the survivors — could only recall buckling his seatbelt moments before touching down, then waking up in a hospital bed and asking, “Where am I? … What happened?”
179 people perished in the crash and the cause is still under investigation … and as we told you, air traffic controllers alerted the crew that the aircraft had experienced a bird strike before touching down.
The aviation disaster is considered the worst in decades in South Korea.