A KOREAN Air jet full of honeymooning couples crashed yesterday on the US Pacific island of Guam, killing most of the 254 people aboard, officials said.
Thirty-two people survived the tragedy, authorities said.
A fire was reported aboard flight KE-801 shortly before the Boeing 747 crashed on approach to Guam International Airport, a Pentagon official said.
"At the moment we're reporting 32 survivors; we're still in a fire-fighting and rescue mode," Guam International Airport executive director Mr Jay Sprague said.
Korean Air officials said the Boeing 747-300 was carrying 231 passengers and 23 crew.
"Most of the passengers are Korean vacationers, tourists and newlywed couples going on honeymoon," a spokesman for the airline said in Seoul.
An 11-year-old Japanese girl and a New Zealand mechanic were among those taken to a hospital, according to officials in Guam, who said about a dozen US nationals were also on the plane.
Officials said the aircraft went down during light rain 5 km short of the runway after losing contact with air traffic control.
Mr Andrew Murphy of the Guam Airport Authority said it appeared the plane experienced engine trouble when it crashed in a rugged jungle area at about 2:00 a.m. local time. An aviation official in Seoul said the last message from the cockpit said there was "something wrong".
The first survivors were airlifted to a naval hospital about 3.2 km away by US navy helicopters. Meanwhile, naval engineers were trying to widen a path to the crash site to get an ambulance bus and other rescue vehicles to the site. The crash site is situated in a dense jungle on Nimitz Hill in the narrow Sasa valley in the central part of Guam.
A pungent smell of burning oil pervaded the air in Guam and flames from the crashed airliner could be seen from some highways. The crash site is difficult to reach, but it is close to the naval hospital.
The hospital, which has an emergency capacity of 300 beds, is the primary facility and received 17 survivors. Another 12 were taken to the Guam Memorial hospital, a civilian hospital further away, an official said.
Guam, the largest of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, is an unincorporated territory of the United States with a population of about 144,000. A US military base covers about one-third of the island. It is a popular destination for Korean tourists, especially for shoppers and honeymooners.
Preliminary reports said 13 of the passengers were US nationals. Many of the others were believed to be South Koreans.