The crash in Muan in southern South Korea on Sunday claimed 179 lives and is considered the worst in the country's history.
On Christmas Day, 38 people died when an Azerbaijani plane crashed in western Kazakhstan. Much suggests that the plane was shot down by Russian air defense.
The two latest accidents mean that a total of 318 people have died in commercial air traffic this year, according to the analysis firm Cirium, reports Bloomberg.
This is by far the highest death toll since 2018. Then, over 500 people died, as a result of, among other things, the first of two notable accidents involving the Boeing 737 Max.
Despite a dark year, fatal plane crashes are rare. 2023 was, in comparison, the safest year ever with no fatalities at all in accidents involving larger passenger planes, according to Bloomberg.
The cause of Sunday's accident has not been established. However, the plane, a Boeing 737-800 coming from Bangkok, experienced problems before landing in South Korea. The pilot attempted to make an emergency landing without being able to extend the plane's landing gear. Once on the ground, the plane crashed into a wall at high speed and exploded.
Among other plane crashes this year, a crash in Brazil with 62 fatalities in August and a crash in Nepal with 18 fatalities in July stand out.
