Chinese jet crashes in South Korea

Rescuers cordon off the crash site where large sections of the fuselage were strewn across the ground

SEOUL, South Korea -- An Air China jet carrying 155 passengers and at least 10 crewmembers has crashed in rain and fog into a mountain near South Korea's second largest city of Busan.

Several passengers survived after the Air China Boeing 767 crashed and broke into pieces after struggling to land in thick fog at Busan's Kimhae international airport, although no official tally has yet been released. Survivors are being treated at local hospitals.

The plane, from Beijing, crashed around 11:40 a.m. (0240 GMT) Monday. Air China's office in Seoul told the Associated Press that among the passengers on Flight CA-129 were 36 South Koreans and 19 foreigners, most of them Chinese.

Witnesses told local television the plane hit a mountainside near apartments, but no one on the ground was hurt.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO An Air China flight carrying 165 people crashes near Busan, South Korea. Television reports say survivors have been taken to hospital (April 15) Play video   GALLERY Scenes from the crash site    MORE STORIES • Crash unlikely to stop privatization    EXTRA INFORMATION • PROFILE: Air China   • CHRONOLOGY: Asian air disasters      CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

"It's all debris around in flames," Park Byung-min, a witness, told YTN cable news television. "The plane is broken in pieces and dead bodies are everywhere."

Television pictures showed a photograph of an Air China jet broken in half and in flames, with rescue workers combing through smoking wreckage strewn amid trees on a foggy hillside.

The bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering rescue efforts, a Kimhae police official told Reuters news agency, but firemen had put out the burning debris at the crash site in the mountains above a residential area.

'Don't know what happened'

"I felt dizzy while I was in the plane and bowed my head, so don't know what happened. I didn't hear anything," said an elderly Korean woman passenger interviewed by YTN in a hospital. Her face was covered with blood.

South Korean transportation ministry officials told YTN the plane, owned by China's largest airline, crashed while trying to land after air traffic controllers told it to take a detour due to bad weather.

Chinese state television said the plane had been redirected to Seoul because of the fog.

The crash comes just six weeks before the soccer World Cup is co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. South Korea expects as many as 60,000 Chinese soccer fans to visit to watch their country's first appearance at the World Cup.

It was the first crash for Air China, Beijing's state-owned flag carrier, which has a fleet of 69 planes operating 114 routes.

The airline is the largest air carrier in China in terms of traffic volume and company assets, according to Air China's Web Site.

Chinese regional airlines suffered a string of crashes in the early 1990s but have steadily improved their safety record since then.

All 39 flights scheduled for Monday from Seoul to Busan and other southern cities were canceled due to bad weather, aviation officials told AP.