54 Survivors from Air China Crash in South Korea

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 15, 2002

54 Survivors from Air China Crash in South Korea

Fifty-four people survived the crash Monday of an Air China jet carrying 166 people near the South Korean city of Busan, government officials said. Although figures for the number of survivors have risen in the hours after the crash, officials cautioned that some of those rescued were in critical condition in hospitals in Busan and nearby Gimhae.

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Fifty-four people survived the crash Monday of an Air China jet carrying 166 people near the South Korean city of Busan, government officials said.

"Fifty-four people have been rescued alive," Kwon Ung, a fire department official, said. "The rescue work is still underway."

Although figures for the number of survivors have risen in the hours after the crash, officials cautioned that some of those rescued were in critical condition in hospitals in Busan and nearby Gimhae.

The government earlier released a list of 20 people taken alive to local hospitals after the Air China Boeing 767-200 smashed into a foggy mountainside.

An unidentified Korean woman in her 60s spoke to South Korean television news station YTN from her hospital bed. The woman whose face was badly cut and bruised said she could not remember the crash.

Due to rain and slippery conditions, rescue workers and equipment struggled to get to the scene of the disaster on a hill in Gimhae, a city next to Busan.

Police, fire fighters and rescue workers searching the crash site in dense fog, using shovels and other equipment.

Fire fighters say they controled the fires in the wreckage four hours after the accident took place. But sporadic explosions were heard at the scene.

A total of 457 fire fighters and rescue equipment, including 10 helicopters, were mobilized for the operation.

The Air China plane on a flight from Beijing to Busan was carrying 155 passengers and 11 crew when it went down. Busan airport is in Gimhae.

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