Thirty-nine people survived an Air China passenger aircraft crash in which the plane ploughed into a South Korean mountain in heavy rain and fog today, killing most of the 167 on board.
Flight CA129, a Boeing 767, was flying to Pusan from Beijing carrying 12 crew and 155 passengers, mostly Korean.
The 17-year-old plane crashed and broke into pieces near apartments, apparently as it struggled to land in thick fog at Kimhae airport in Pusan, South Korea's second-largest city 325 kilometres southeast of Seoul, soon after 2 a.m. Irish time.
Officials said 115 deaths had been confirmed at the site or in hospital and that 13 people were not accounted for yet. Of 54 people who initially had survived - some of them staggering down the mountainside to seek help - 15 later died.
Television said at least one of the flight recorders had been recovered.
"I felt dizzy while I was in the plane and bowed my head, so I don't know what happened," said an elderly Korean woman passenger. "I didn't hear anything".
One survivor, a man in his forties and walking with one shoe, limped down a steep slope into a tiny shop called Hope Grocery.