SEOUL, 16 April — One of the world’s safest airlines suffered its first ever fatal accident yesterday, when an Air China passenger jet crashed into a foggy hill in South Korea, killing most of those on board.
The Boeing 767 from Beijing disintegrated and caught fire after crashing on its approach to the South Korean city of Pusan yesterday morning. By last night, 39 people were reported to have survived the crash out of 166 passengers and crew on board.
The accident occurred in rain and thick fog on a forested 1,500-foot hill near to the airport and perilously close to several blocks of flats. “The plane is broken into pieces, and there are dead bodies everywhere,” said a bystander, Park Byung Min.
The crash came just six weeks before soccer’s World Cup finals are to be 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.
Despite the proximity of the apartment buildings, no one on the ground was reported to have been killed or injured. Dead and injured passengers were carried by stretcher and on piggyback from the crash site, which was inaccessible to helicopters and ambulances.
“It was a total mess,” a hospital worker named Oh Kang Seak said after visiting the scene. “It is steep even for walking, although the mountain is not so high.”
Surviving passengers reported that the impact came just after the instruction to passengers to buckle their seat belts at about 11.20 a.m. “The plane crashed with a roaring sound,” one 35-year-old Korean survivor, Kim Mun-hak, told a cable news station. “I managed to get out from the plane, and I saw thick smoke and blaze.”
“I felt dizzy while I was in the plane and bowed my head, so I don’t know what happened,” an elderly Korean lady told a television reporter. “I didn’t hear anything.”
The captain of the Air China jet was among the survivors of the accident, state media reported in Beijing. The captain, Wu Xinlu, and another member of the crew, Wang Ze, were among the survivors of the CA-129 Flight.
At least one of the plane’s safety recorders had been recovered last night and, although it was too early to determine the cause of the accident, the poor weather seems to have been at least a contributory factor.
It was raining at the time of the crash and low cloud and dense fog had reduced visibility. As the plane neared the airport, Pusan air traffic control had reportedly asked the pilot to approach the runway from the opposite direction due to a strong headwind. The plane crashed into the hill while circling to other side of the airport. According to China’s Civil Aviation Administration the passengers were mostly Koreans, with 19 Chinese and one Uzbek, as well as the 11 Chinese crew. It appeared that the plane had crashed tail first, and that most of those who survived were in the front of the aircraft.
China’s domestic air lines have a poor reputation for safety, but until yesterday Air China, the country’s principle international carrier, had a spotless record. In 47 years of flying and more than 2.72 million hours, it had never lost a passenger.
It is on Air China that the country’s senior leadership flies on international visits. (The Independent)
