Seoul - UPI
A pilot and co-pilot died Thursday in the crash of their cargo plane near Jeju Island, south of South Korea, officials said Thursday. About an hour into the Asiana Airlines flight from Inchon, South Korea, to Shanghai, the pilot requested an emergency landing at Jeju International Airport because some of the cargo was on fire, The Wall Street Journal reported. The plane crashed into the Korea Strait about 74 miles west of the Jeju airport, officials said. South Korea's coast guard recovered debris throughout the day. The cargo plane crash was Asiana Airlines' first fatal accident since 1993 when one of the airline's domestic passenger jets crashed into a hillside in southwestern South Korea, killing 68 people.