US News

BOEING 747 CRASHES NEAR LONDON, ; KILLING CREW OF 4

LONDON — A Korean Air jumbo cargo jet crashed on takeoff north of London yesterday, apparently killing all four people aboard but narrowly missing a busy roadway.

The Milan-bound jet exploded in a fireball three miles from Stansted Airport — but landed in an open field, a short distance from the village of Great Hallingbury in rural Essex.

“It just missed us by feet,” villager Gary Dan said, adding that the Boeing 747-200 was “groaning” and on fire when it flew over the top of his house.

“I tracked it as it went to the field in back of us and hit the ground and was a big fireball,” Dan, 39, said. “My brother and I ran down there to see if we could find survivors and there was a crater 30 feet by 60 feet.”

A greater tragedy was avoided because the plane missed the busy M11 road when it crashed about 6:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. New York time). Eyewitness Jeff Whalley said drivers had “a narrow escape.”

The plane apparently ripped through power lines, knocking out electricity to the town before crashing.

Witnesses said the impact was followed by huge explosions that sent flames 500 feet into the sky.

The size of the explosion and crater aroused speculation that the aircraft was carrying low-grade explosives in its 64 tons of cargo.

But investigators said they had not identified the cargo as of late yesterday. The plane had been scheduled to continue on to South Korea after a stop in Milan.

The jet only made it to about 300 feet after leaving Stansted, 20 miles north of London. The airport, London’s third and newest, was closed for hours.

The accident was the latest in a recent series of Korean Air mishaps. Last month, the government in Seoul banned the airline from adding new international routes and flights for one year, after U.S. investigators said the crew was mostly responsible for a 1997 jumbo jet crash in Guam that killed 228 people.