47 pulled from jet crash disaster

At least 47 survivors were pulled from the wreckage of a Boeing 767 plane today after it crashed into a mountainside.

The accident took place on the outskirts of Pusan in South Korea, the country's second largest city situated about 200 miles south-east of Seoul.

In only six weeks, hundreds of thousands of soccer fans are expected to attend the World Cup which is being cohosted by South Korea.

The crash is believed to have killed up to 119 of the 166 passengers and crew on board. Heavy rain and dense fog were hampering the 17-year-old Air China aircraft when it disappeared from radar screens shortly before the crash at 2.45am today.

Initially there were thought to be no survivors. But rescuers began finding people alive. Most were seated in the front, leading aviation officials to conclude that the rear hit the ground first.

Quoting survivors, police said there was no explosion before the crash, an indication that it was an accident, not an act of terrorism. Although Chinese aviation authorities reported that the plane from Beijing had crashed into an apartment block, there were no reports of casualties among residents.

During the rescue operation, several bloodied and bandaged victims were carried down muddy paths to be taken to hospital because helicopters and emergency vehicles could not reach the site.

Fifty-four were pulled alive from the wreckage but seven died in hospital or on the way.

Of the 155 passengers, 135 were Koreans and 19 Chinese. There was one Uzbek. One of the flight recorders has been recovered.

Aviation officials said that the airport's control tower permitted the plane to land but asked the pilot to approach the runway from the opposite direction due to a strong headwind. The aircraft hit the mountain while circling around to the other side of the airport.

Kimhae airport is used for both civilian and military planes and air force personnel staff the control tower.

Air force Colonel Kim Sunghwi said the plane was given permission to land because weather conditions were good enough. One passenger, her face covered with blood, was able to talk about her ordeal. "I felt dizzy in the plane and bowed my head. I didn't hear anything," she told reporters.

Kim Mun-hak, 35, said the plane crashed shortly after an announcement advising the passengers to buckle their seatbelts. "The plane crashed with a roaring sound. I managed to come out from the plane, and saw thick smoke and a blaze." Television-pictures showed rescue workers struggling amid smoking wreckage strewn amid trees on a foggy hillside. As they worked to find more survivors, the site remained shrouded in fog and rain. One witness, Park Byung-min, said: "The plane is in pieces and dead bodies are everywhere."

A Kimhae police official said the weather and rugged terrain were hampering rescue efforts, but firemen had extinguished the burning debris.

A Foreign Office spokesman is liaising with authorities to determine if any Britons were on board. A spokesman said: "So far we have not been told about any Britons."

A string of crashes took place throughout the early Nineties among regional Chinese airlines.

However, it is the first plane crash in the 47-year history of Air China, which has launched a full investigation into the cause of the disaster.

The last Chinese air disaster was nearly two years ago when a plane crashed near a river in the central city of Wuhan, killing all 44 people on board and seven on the ground.