The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew. Two of the passengers were Thai and the rest are believed to have been South Korean, authorities have said. Many are thought to have been returning from a Christmas holiday in Thailand.

The official death toll stands at 179 – making it the deadliest plane crash in South Korean history.

All the passengers and four members of crew died.

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.

“I can’t believe the entire family has just disappeared,” Maeng Gi-Su, 78, whose nephew and grand-nephews were on the flight, told the BBC. “My heart aches so much.”

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.

More than 1,500 emergency personnel have been deployed as part of recovery efforts, including 490 fire employees and 455 police officers. They have been searching the area around the runway for parts of the plane and those who were onboard.