SEOUL, April 15: An Air China passenger aircraft bound for South Korea with 166 people aboard crashed into a mountain near South Korea’s second largest city in rain and fog on Monday, the airline and local officials said. Thirty-nine passengers survived the disaster.

A rescue official from Seoul’s interior ministry said initially 54 people had been rescued alive, but 15 had died at hospital or en route.

“We have still not confirmed the fate of the Chinese pilot and crew,” he told reporters.

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, 325kms southeast of Seoul, soon after 11am (8am PST).

It was the first-ever crash of any Air China plane.

The crash took place just six weeks before the soccer World Cup finals are 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.

“The plane crashed into the mountain. No one on the ground was hurt,” a Kimhae city official said.

He said it had crashed into a 500-metre mountain near the city. Television reports said rescue efforts were hampered by fog, rain and smoke from the crash site.

The plane, an Air China Boeing 767 aircraft, crashed into a mountainside near an apartment complex near Kimhae airport, which serves the port city of Pusan on the Sea of Japan.

An Air China official said in Seoul 80 to 90 per cent of the passengers were Korean.

Asiana Airlines, South Korea’s second largest carrier, said the Chinese plane had disappeared from radar screens around 11am (8am PST) in heavy rain and fog.

An official at Seoul’s domestic Kimpo airport said 38 flights from there to Ulsan, Pusan, Yeosu, Pohang and Mokpo and 42 flights from the cities to Kimpo had been cancelled so far due to heavy rain and fog that had closed some airports in the south of the country.

TRANSPORT CHECKS: The South Korean cabinet ordered full checks of all transport following the crash.