Survivors
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Another Rueters report from the ABC News website...
Most Feared Dead in Air China Jet Crash in S.Korea
April 15
— By Cho Mee-young
SEOUL (Reuters) - An Air China passenger aircraft from Beijing with 166 people, mostly Koreans, aboard crashed into a mountain near South Korea's second largest city in rain and fog Monday, the airline and local officials said.
China's Xinhua news agency reported South Korean officials as saying all 155 passengers and 11 crew were thought to have been killed. But a local hospital official told Reuters four survivors had been brought in for treatment. A local police official said fewer than 10 people were thought to have survived.
The crash took place just six weeks before the soccer World Cup finals are co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. South Korea expects as many as 60,000 Chinese soccer fans to visit to watch their country's first appearance at the World Cup.
"The plane crashed into the mountain. No one on the ground was hurt," a Kimhae city official told Reuters by telephone.
He said it had crashed into a 1,600-foot mountain near the city. Television reports said rescue efforts were hampered by fog, rain and smoke from the crash site.
The plane, an Air China Boeing 767 aircraft, crashed into a mountainside near an apartment complex near Kimhae airport, which serves the port city of Pusan on the Sea of Japan.
An Air China official told Reuters in Seoul 80 to 90 percent of the passengers were Korean.
Asiana Airlines, South Korea's second largest carrier, said the Chinese plane had disappeared from radar screens around 11 a.m. (10 p.m. EDT Sunday) in heavy rain and fog.
An officer at Kimhae police station said by telephone less than 10 people had been taken to hospitals nearby.
The edaily financial news Web site quoted an official at Seoul's Inchon International Airport as saying about 10 people are thought to have survived the crash.
An official at Seoul's domestic Kimpo airport said 38 flights from there to Ulsan, Pusan, Yeosu, Pohang and Mokpo and 42 flights from the cities to Kimpo had been canceled so far due to heavy rain and fog that had closed some airports in the south of the country.
More flights were expected to be canceled in the afternoon, the official said by telephone. (Additional reporting by Nam In-soo, Song Jung-a, Samuel Len)
(edited to add the news article)
Last edited by Flight Safety; 15th Apr 2002 at 06:21.