Crash survivors speak of final moments

Emergency efforts are shifting from searching for survivors to locating victims' bodies

BUSAN, South Korea -- Passengers aboard the doomed Air China jet have begun talking about the final moments of their flight, as their plane slammed into a foggy mountain in South Korea, catching fire and skidding 100 yards.

The Monday morning crash near the southern port city of Busan killed at least 119 people. Thirty-eight of those on board survived, including the pilot, but nine are still missing. Most of the passengers were South Koreans.

Survivors said Flight CA-129 crashed shortly after passengers were told to buckle their seat belts and prepare for landing.

The nonstop flight from Beijing was headed for nearby Kimhae Airport, but was being diverted to Seoul, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is helping in the probe.

"The plane suddenly dipped, then rose and then went down again. Seconds later, there was a big bang and I was knocked unconscious," Jin Wenxue, a 35-year-old Korean-Chinese man from China's Jilin province, told The Associated Press.

'Bodies burning in the mud'

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The Boeing 767-200 hit one side of a 1,000-foot mountain near a residential area and then plowed toward the peak, catching fire and cutting a trail of fallen trees 100 yards long and 30 yards wide, witnesses say.

"Bodies were burning in the mud. Survivors were crying in pain," Bae Han-sol, 15, who rushed to the site after the plane skimmed over his village with a deafening roar, told AP.

"We seldom see planes flying over our village, so I thought it was strange that the plane, trembling, flew toward the mountain in fog."

Quoting survivors, police said there was no explosion on the plane before the crash, an indication that it was an accident, not an act of terrorism.

Investigators said they will examine the flight data recorders recovered from Air China Flight 129, and will probe the hospitalized Chinese pilot, Wu Xing Lu, who has not yet spoken about the accident.

Poor weather -- including rain, fog and strong winds -- was believed to be among the factors in the accident, but it was too early to identify the exact cause, authorities said.

In trouble

A South Korean travel agency executive said he got a call around the time of the crash from a passenger aboard the plane who said it seemed to be in trouble.

"The caller said, 'The plane seems to have problems, maybe, an accident,"' Kim Yu-seok told AP. "After a brief silence, I heard people screaming over the phone."

"Then the phone got disconnected."

He first dismissed the 15-20 second call as a prank but then realized the caller was Lee Kang-dae, an adviser to his company who was on the flight from Beijing. He said Lee was among the survivors.

Asked for a mirror

Many of the bloodied and bandaged survivors had to trudge down the muddy slope to safety, or were given piggybacks by police.

But one of the first survivors had to make his way on his own. He walked to the Hope Grocery store, at the bottom of the hill, to ask South Korean shopkeeper Suh Eun-sook for help -- and a mirror.

Authorities are searching for clues

"This man, wearing a suit covered with blood and soot, hobbled into my store, covering his face," Suh told Reuters.

"His face was black and his cheek was bleeding heavily," 35-year-old Suh said, adding the man was missing a shoe.

"We called the 119 emergency hotline and then he sat there and asked for a mirror," Suh said. "He saw his face and looked stunned."

The man, who did not give his name, was later taken to a hospital in South Korea's second largest city, as rescuers searched the mountainside above the shop. It was not clear how badly he was injured.

Several other survivors described how they fled to safety. From his hospital bed, one survivor said that he lost consciousness when the plane crashed.

"When I came to, I saw fire at the tail. There was a little hole on the left side so I slid through there," he said.

'Like shredded paper'

Hundreds of police, military and civilian workers are combing through wreckage, using shovels and electric torches, but their work has been hampered by heavy rain. Bad roads also slowed rescue efforts.

The plane's wreckage looked like shredded pieces of paper, witnesses say. Burned plane parts were scattered for 300 yards in all directions, and the broken tail and nose rested near the mountaintop. The air reeked of burning oil.

"There were pieces of aircraft everywhere. The plane crashed into a steep incline and the rain and mud made it very hard to reach the site," said Chun Hee-saeng, a resident who helped rescuers.

"Everything was burnt, including the people that I saw."

China has ordered domestic airlines to inspect their fleets, while South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has urged a careful follow-up to the crash, just six weeks before the country co-hosts the soccer World Cup.

-- CNN Seoul Bureau Chief Sohn Jie-Ae and CNN producer Lisa Rose Weaver contributed to this report.