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CNN Live At Daybreak

Survivors of South Korean Crash Had to be Carried Down Mountain

Aired April 15, 2002 - 06:01   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 want to turn our attention now to that air disaster in South Korea. Television there are showing pictures of an Air China jet broken in half and on fire, but amazingly, there are survivors.

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

SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Here in South Korea, it's actually evening. It's getting dark, but here in Kimhae, which is just at the site of the crash. It is still drizzling. There is still heavy fog around, but just hours ago there -- this is also the site where rescue workers were able to help some of the survivors of the Air China flight.

I talked to one of the rescue workers, who was covered with smut and coming down after a long five to six hour haul in the rescue area. He said that he believed that many of his co-workers were able to haul some of the survivors out of the tail end of the plane, because that was sort of thrown a little apart from the main engines, and was therefore able to avoid some of the fires that may have increased the number of casualties at this air site.

At this point, there are firing up the engines and preparing to work all night, but they are not really hopeful of getting any more survivors. At this point, it is a search for bodies and a clue as to what exactly caused the crash -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So these survivors were able to survive, too, because the aircraft wasn't going that fast. Is that right?

JIE-AE: Yes. The aircraft was actually coming in for a landing. It was just minutes away. Some of the survivors that had been interviewed have said that they had been told to fasten their seatbelts -- that they were coming in for a landing. And that was pretty much the last thing they heard before sort of the bottom dropped, and they crashed.

So they were pretty close to landing, when the crash happened. And therefore, that may have contributed to the fact that there were so many survivors -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And rescue workers, did they manage to get there pretty quickly? Is that another factor?

JIE-AE: Well, that may have been a factor, but the site itself is really hard to get to. It involves a climb up a mountain of 30 minutes or more. And because of the fog and the rain, rescue helicopters weren't used at all. And so, they had to literally drag everyone down the mountain by hand, so if anything, it actually even hindered the rescue efforts. But they were pretty quick to get on the scene, even with the conditions that were here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Amazing work. Thank you for that report -- Sohn Jie- Ae reporting live from South Korea this morning.

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