"Passengers were ejected from the aircraft after it collided with the wall, leaving little chance of survival," a local fire official told families at a briefing, according to a statement released by the fire brigade.

"The plane is almost completely destroyed," he was quoted as saying.

Both black boxes -- the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder -- have been found, deputy transport minister Joo Jong-wan said at a briefing.

Under floodlights, rescue workers used a giant yellow crane to lift the burned-out fuselage of the orange-and-white aircraft on the runway at Muan -- some 288 kilometres (about 180 miles) southwest of Seoul.