本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Chinese Passenger Jet Slams Into Korean Mountain
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:46 a.m. ET
KIMHAE (Reuters) - Thirty-nine people miraculously survived when an Air China passenger aircraft plowed into a wooded South Korean mountain in heavy rain and fog on Monday, killing most of the 167 on board.
Flight CA129, a Boeing 767 belonging to China's national carrier, was flying to Pusan from Beijing carrying 12 crew and 155 passengers, mostly Korean.
The crash came just six weeks before soccer's World Cup finals are co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. Tens of thousands of fans from around the world are expected to visit the two countries during the competition.
The 17-year-old plane crashed and broke into pieces near apartments, apparently as it struggled to land in thick fog at Kimhae airport in Pusan, South Korea's second largest city 200 miles southeast of Seoul, soon after 11:00 a.m.
Officials said 115 deaths had been confirmed at the site or in hospital and 13 people were not accounted for yet. Of 54 people who initially had survived -- some of them staggering down the mountainside to seek help -- 15 later died.
``The injuries are mainly lacerations, burns and bruises, and x-rays have revealed broken bones and internal injuries,'' said Park Pil-jae, a doctor at Kimhae Baptist Hospital.
Television said at least one of the flight recorders had been recovered.
``There were pieces of aircraft everywhere. The plane crashed into a steep incline and the rain and mud made it very hard to reach the site,'' Chun Hee-saeng, a resident who helped rescuers, told Reuters.
``Everything was burned, including the people that I saw,'' he said.
Hundreds of rescuers -- some from emergency services, some in muddied shirts and ties -- were combing through smoking wreckage strewn amid trees on a foggy hillside.
``I felt dizzy while I was in the plane and bowed my head, so I don't know what happened,'' said an elderly Korean woman passenger interviewed by YTN cable news television in hospital, her face covered with blood. ``I didn't hear anything.''
ONE-SHOED MAN WALKS OUT
One survivor, a man in his forties and walking with one shoe, limped down a steep slope into a tiny shop called Hope Grocery.
``This man, wearing a suit covered with blood and soot, hobbled into my store, covering his face,'' said Suh Eun-sook, owner of the grocery.
``We called the 119 emergency hot line and then he sat there and asked for a mirror. He saw his face and looked stunned,'' she said. He was later taken to hospital.
As darkness fell, Kimhae Fire Department official Chung Byong-ho told reporters rescue work was 90 percent done, but the search for bodies and any more survivors would take all night.
Choi Jin-jong, a rescue official from the Interior Ministry, said 115 deaths had been confirmed at the site or in hospital, and 13 people were not accounted for yet.
``We have still not confirmed the fate of the Chinese pilot and crew,'' he told reporters. The list of the survivors included a 32-year-old male crew member surnamed Wu.
Yonhap news agency said most of the survivors were seated in the front of the plane. It quoted aviation officials as saying the rear part of the plane appeared to have hit the ground first.
Several bloodied and bandaged victims were carried piggyback or trudged down muddy paths to be taken to hospital. Helicopters and rescue vehicles could not reach the site.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung expressed his condolences to victims, his office said. China's Xinhua news agency said President Jiang Zemin, on a state visit to Nigeria, also voiced condolences and sympathy to relatives.
A South Korean cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Lee Han-dong ordered thorough checks of air, land and sea transport safety as well as medical centers so the ``World Cup and other imminent international events can be carried out without a hitch,'' the government said in a statement.
In Beijing, anxious relatives sought news on the crash.
``Up to now, they haven't told us anything,'' said one woman who declined to give her name. ``I heard there were some survivors, but don't know anything.''
China's Xinhua news agency quoted Ma Songwei, chief publicity official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, as saying of 155 passengers, 135 were Korean nationals and 19 Chinese. There was one Uzbek, it said.
A Kimhae police official said by telephone the weather and rugged terrain -- typical of many areas around Pusan -- were hampering rescue efforts, but firemen said the steady rain had extinguished burning debris.
It was the first crash for Air China, Beijing's state-owned flag carrier, which is seeking a strategic airline investor as part of plans to go private and list on the stock exchange.
``No one on the ground was hurt,'' a Kimhae city official told Reuters by telephone. He said the plane crashed into a 1,600-foot hillside near the city. Television footage shot from a helicopter showed apartments were less than one km (half a mile) from the crash.
Air China had flown for 47 years without a crash at home or abroad, an official at the flag carrier told Reuters. The airline is the largest air carrier in China in terms of traffic volume and company assets, according to Air China's Web site.
Air China also carries Jiang Zemin and other top officials on their domestic and foreign trips.
Chinese regional airlines suffered a string of crashes in the early 1990s but have steadily improved their safety record.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
By REUTERS
Filed at 8:46 a.m. ET
KIMHAE (Reuters) - Thirty-nine people miraculously survived when an Air China passenger aircraft plowed into a wooded South Korean mountain in heavy rain and fog on Monday, killing most of the 167 on board.
Flight CA129, a Boeing 767 belonging to China's national carrier, was flying to Pusan from Beijing carrying 12 crew and 155 passengers, mostly Korean.
The crash came just six weeks before soccer's World Cup finals are co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. Tens of thousands of fans from around the world are expected to visit the two countries during the competition.
The 17-year-old plane crashed and broke into pieces near apartments, apparently as it struggled to land in thick fog at Kimhae airport in Pusan, South Korea's second largest city 200 miles southeast of Seoul, soon after 11:00 a.m.
Officials said 115 deaths had been confirmed at the site or in hospital and 13 people were not accounted for yet. Of 54 people who initially had survived -- some of them staggering down the mountainside to seek help -- 15 later died.
``The injuries are mainly lacerations, burns and bruises, and x-rays have revealed broken bones and internal injuries,'' said Park Pil-jae, a doctor at Kimhae Baptist Hospital.
Television said at least one of the flight recorders had been recovered.
``There were pieces of aircraft everywhere. The plane crashed into a steep incline and the rain and mud made it very hard to reach the site,'' Chun Hee-saeng, a resident who helped rescuers, told Reuters.
``Everything was burned, including the people that I saw,'' he said.
Hundreds of rescuers -- some from emergency services, some in muddied shirts and ties -- were combing through smoking wreckage strewn amid trees on a foggy hillside.
``I felt dizzy while I was in the plane and bowed my head, so I don't know what happened,'' said an elderly Korean woman passenger interviewed by YTN cable news television in hospital, her face covered with blood. ``I didn't hear anything.''
ONE-SHOED MAN WALKS OUT
One survivor, a man in his forties and walking with one shoe, limped down a steep slope into a tiny shop called Hope Grocery.
``This man, wearing a suit covered with blood and soot, hobbled into my store, covering his face,'' said Suh Eun-sook, owner of the grocery.
``We called the 119 emergency hot line and then he sat there and asked for a mirror. He saw his face and looked stunned,'' she said. He was later taken to hospital.
As darkness fell, Kimhae Fire Department official Chung Byong-ho told reporters rescue work was 90 percent done, but the search for bodies and any more survivors would take all night.
Choi Jin-jong, a rescue official from the Interior Ministry, said 115 deaths had been confirmed at the site or in hospital, and 13 people were not accounted for yet.
``We have still not confirmed the fate of the Chinese pilot and crew,'' he told reporters. The list of the survivors included a 32-year-old male crew member surnamed Wu.
Yonhap news agency said most of the survivors were seated in the front of the plane. It quoted aviation officials as saying the rear part of the plane appeared to have hit the ground first.
Several bloodied and bandaged victims were carried piggyback or trudged down muddy paths to be taken to hospital. Helicopters and rescue vehicles could not reach the site.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung expressed his condolences to victims, his office said. China's Xinhua news agency said President Jiang Zemin, on a state visit to Nigeria, also voiced condolences and sympathy to relatives.
A South Korean cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Lee Han-dong ordered thorough checks of air, land and sea transport safety as well as medical centers so the ``World Cup and other imminent international events can be carried out without a hitch,'' the government said in a statement.
In Beijing, anxious relatives sought news on the crash.
``Up to now, they haven't told us anything,'' said one woman who declined to give her name. ``I heard there were some survivors, but don't know anything.''
China's Xinhua news agency quoted Ma Songwei, chief publicity official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, as saying of 155 passengers, 135 were Korean nationals and 19 Chinese. There was one Uzbek, it said.
A Kimhae police official said by telephone the weather and rugged terrain -- typical of many areas around Pusan -- were hampering rescue efforts, but firemen said the steady rain had extinguished burning debris.
It was the first crash for Air China, Beijing's state-owned flag carrier, which is seeking a strategic airline investor as part of plans to go private and list on the stock exchange.
``No one on the ground was hurt,'' a Kimhae city official told Reuters by telephone. He said the plane crashed into a 1,600-foot hillside near the city. Television footage shot from a helicopter showed apartments were less than one km (half a mile) from the crash.
Air China had flown for 47 years without a crash at home or abroad, an official at the flag carrier told Reuters. The airline is the largest air carrier in China in terms of traffic volume and company assets, according to Air China's Web site.
Air China also carries Jiang Zemin and other top officials on their domestic and foreign trips.
Chinese regional airlines suffered a string of crashes in the early 1990s but have steadily improved their safety record.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net