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CNN Live At Daybreak

Air Disaster in South Korea

Aired April 15, 2002 - 05:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention to an air disaster in South Korea. Television there is showing pictures of an Air China jet broken in half. But there are survivors.

CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae joins us live on the phone from Busan with the latest -- good morning.

SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

I am about 200 to 300 meters away from the actual crash site itself. This is in Kimhe (ph). It's about an hour's flight from Seoul. It's very near the southern port city of Busan. We have not been able to actually see the crash site itself, but I have, I hear, stand here and see trickles of rescue workers covered with mud going up and down the mountain.

I talked to one recently and he said that the rescue work is expected to go on throughout the night, but he did not, they were actually at this point not really looking for more survivors.

So far the South Korean media says there are about 54 survivors who have actually survived the crash. Some of them have actually been able to be helped down this mountain, but most of them have been carried down on stretchers.

The rescue efforts are -- some of the rescue -- the rescue people have, are on hospitals in nearby areas. Here in Kimhe, it is still rainy. It is, there is still heavy fog surrounding the area and these weather conditions are expected to have had a major role in the crash itself -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I just can't believe there were survivors. These are amazing pictures that we're seeing. The plane was broken in half and we saw the fuselage on fire there on the ground. How did these people manage to survive, do you think?

JIE-AE: Well, we're not sure yet. But some of the people think that maybe because the plane was flying at relatively low speed and it sort of hit the mountain at not a very high speed and was very close to the mountain when it actually hit.

Now, there were a couple of explosions that happened after the crash that might have prevented even more survivors coming off the mountain. But at this point, because of the rain, it did sort of prevent the fire from spreading even further and so there are very many lucky elements that might have contributed to having so many survivors of this crash site -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We're glad for that.

Thank you. Sohn Jie-Ae reporting live for us this morning from Busan.

Check out more on this Air China crash on our Web site. That's where you can also get the background and key players in the crisis in the Middle East. It's easy. All you have to do is go to cnn.com. The AOL keyword is CNN.

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