April 15, 1999
Web posted at: 7:50 AM EDT (1150 GMT)
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- A Korean Air cargo plane
crashed and
exploded into migrant workers' housing minutes after leaving Shanghai's busy airport
Thursday, killing seven people and injuring at least 37.
All three members of the flight crew and four others on the ground were killed, said Moon
Chang-boo, the South Korean consul in Shanghai.
The plane plunged to the ground, plowing into housing for migrant workers in an explosion
that produced a boom but no smoke, said employees with city's Minhang district fire
department who saw the accident and a doctor with Minhang Central Hospital.
The doctor, who refused to give his name, said the 37 injured being treated in his
hospital were "all in danger." Moon, the South Korean consul, said 25 people
were injured, some very seriously.
The Seoul-bound plane, a seven-year-old McDonnell Douglas MD-11
carrying 68 tons of cargo, crashed into an industrial development zone 10 kilometers (6
miles) southwest of Hongqiao airport, Korean Air and Chinese officials said.
Korean Air said the crash took place around 4:10 p.m. (0810 GMT), six minutes after
take-off.
The crash scattered pieces of the plane along the ground and blew out car windows for
several blocks, said a local resident and a rescue worker with Shanghai's Minhang district
fire department, who would only give his surname, Gu.
Among the injured was a road crew working in the industrial development zone where the
crash occurred, said a fire department worker, who identified herself as Ms. Zhang.
Korean Air identified the crew members as Pilot Hong Sung-shil, co-pilot Park Bon-sok and
technician Park Byong-ki.
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Korea cargo jet crashes in China -
Korean Air
06:36 a.m. Apr 15, 1999 Eastern
SEOUL, April 15 (Reuters) - A
Korean Air Lines cargo jet
crashed minutes after taking off from Shanghai's airport on
Thursday, possibly due to an explosion aboard the plane, a
Korean Air official said.
South Korea's Yonhap Television News said the plane's three
crew, two pilots and a maintenance worker, died in the crash.
``Right now the reason behind the crash is unknown, but the
sound of an explosion was heard before the jet crashed and we
have not ruled out the possibility of an explosion,'' the airline
said in a statement.
A Korean Air spokesman said the airline has yet to confirm if
the three crew were killed.
The triple-engined MD-11 jet crashed six minutes after taking
off from Shanghai at 0810 GMT, about 10 km (six miles) south
of the airport.
Firefighters rushed to the crash site in Xinzhuang on the
outskirts of the city, airport officials and a Seoul diplomat said.
The plane was on its way to Seoul and its cargo was not
immediately known.
Wind speed was 12 knots under rainy conditions but visibility
was more than 10 km at the time of the crash, the Korean Air
statement said.
Korean Air has had a series of landing mishaps over the past
year, including two narrow escapes last month.
Industry weekly Flight International said this week Korean Air
had suffered 11 serious accidents since 1990.
``By anyone's standards, those numbers represent the
symptoms of a system in trouble,'' Flight said in an editorial.
The airline on Wednesday said it was hiring 50 non-Korean
pilots from other airlines as part of a safety improvement
programme.
In February, a China Southwest Airlines Tupolev Tu-154
crashed near the city of Wenzhou in the eastern coastal
province of Zhejiang, killing 61 people. It was China's worst
aviation disaster in five years.
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 Beware this LOGO |
Eight dead in Shanghai plane
crash
The impact left a crater 20 meters long and eight meters deep
Investigators have begun sifting through the wreckage of
a Korean Air cargo plane which crashed into a
construction site on the outskirts of Shanghai killing
eight people.
The Korean Air MD-11 crashed in flames minutes into its
return journey to Seoul, carrying 68 tons of foodstuffs,
machine parts and other cargo.
The investigators are looking for bodies and the aircraft's
black box flight recorder, which might hold clues as to
why the plane came down.
The plane's three-man crew are among those killed. At
least 30 others were injured on the ground.
The plane narrowly missed hitting nearby apartment
blocks.
The accident occurred just after 1600 local time (0800
GMT) on Thursday.
Bomb fears
There are conflicting reports
about whether or not the
aircraft exploded before
crashing.
A Korean Air spokesman
was quoted as saying shortly
after the crash: "A report
from the scene said there
was a sound of an explosion,
so we suspect the possibility
that the plane might have
exploded in flight, but it is
still unclear if this is correct."
But an eye-witness said she saw no explosion before
the plane came down.
A Korean transport ministry official told reporters it was
premature to speculate on the cause of the crash.
"It's way too early to say what caused the accident," he
said. "Nobody can or should be saying at this moment
that it was bomb."
Record of accidents
Korean Air has had 11
serious crashes in nine
years. This week, the airline
announced a plan to hire 50
non-Korean pilots as part of a
safety improvement
programme.
Thursday's crash was the
airline's first major accident
since 1997, when 229 people
died after a Korean Air flight
crashed into a hillside.
The MD-11 is the same model as the Swissair plane
which crashed off the Canadian coast last year, killing all
229 people on board.
Shortly after the Swissair
crash, a Chinese-owned
MD-11 was forced to make an emergency landing at
Shanghai airport, after developing problems with its
landing gear.
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