AGANA. Guam, Aug 7: Shaking uncontrollably and in flames. Korean Air Flight 801 filummeted in a sudden, deadly ree fall in the last seconds before hitting the ground and exploding. passengers and crew members said Thursday in the first accounts from the 29 survivors, reports AP.

Burned, scratched but alive, the fortunate ones among the 254 people aboard told of being thrown from the Boeing 747 still strapped into their seat, and of turning back in their escape from the burning Jet to pull fellow passengers to safety.

"I felt the plane shake, and shake more, and then it was a sudden drop. It felt like there was no gravity," Song Yun-ho, 29, said from his bed at Guam's US Navy hospital, cuts raked across his face, arms and leg. "When I woke up, the plane had crashed.”

The Boeing 747 from Seoul.

South Korea, went down in driving rain Wednesday in a deep ravine three miles (five kilometres) from Its airport destination on this US-governed Pacific island. Seventeen hours later, rescuers said they had found all the survivors.

Flight 801 was carrying mostly Korean tourists, including many families heading to Guam's tropical beaches for vacation. Also on board were 23 crew members and at least 13 Americans.

Hundreds of family members of those aboard arrived Wednesday in Guam, either to wait for authorities to identify the dead or — for a few — to comfort injured loved oneg.

Thank God. you are alive. You are so lucky," father Song Jae-Young said Thursday, stroking Song's bandaged leg tenderly, urging the young man to stop struggling to raise himself up In bed in his father's

presence.

The son had been headed to the island for a vacation with a friend. He told The Associated Press he survived by bolting from the burning wreckage seconds before it exploded into much fiercer flames.

Song told his father of turning back to pull out another passenger, saying he could not bear to leave him behind. The passenger also survived.

Flight attendant Oh Sanghee. 25, lay in bed in another room at the hospital, face burned slightly and hair singed.

Oh had felt the Jet shaking more than usual throughout the flight; worrying her so at one point that she went to a window to look at the fuselage only to see flames surging.

The impact of the crash had jolted Oh from the Jet still in her chair, her seatbelt wrapped around her.

You have to repay for your

life as long as you live," father Oh Gil-ho told the young woman at the hospital.

Sixty-nine bodies had been recovered from the wreckage by the time the rescue effort was called off for the night, said Ginger Cruz, a spokeswoman for Guam Gov Carl Gutierrez.

"We scoured the whole area all day today." Air Force Col Al Riggle said. "We know there are some bodies still down there, but it's smoldering too hot."

Many among the 300 relatives of Flight 80 Is Injured and dead — flown in on several flights as a courtesy by Korean Air — wore black. They stared ahead numbly, ruddy faces damp with tears.

Relatives veered between optimism and despair. "I have hope." said Kim Moon-Hyun, who declined to say which of his relatives had been on the flight Then "I don't even want to Imagine what I will face out-

side."

Two US Navy CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters rescued survivors, many of them burned. With the Jet still burning. Navy Seabees moved in backpoes to crack open the fuselage

The survivors, some of them severely Injured, were being treated at two hospitals on the island. Burn experts were being flown in from the US mainland.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were due to arrive later Thursday to examine the crash site in the thick, tropical underbrush where the plane went down and officials from the Los Angeles County coroner's office were on their way to help process the dead, many charred beyond immediate recognition The voice and flight data recorders have been sent to Washington for analysis

The survivors had been seated In the front of the plane, which was largely Intact. But the plane's pilot and co-pllot were missing and presumed dead, the airline said.

"I Join with all Americans In expressing our deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible plane crash in Guam." President Clinton told reporters in Washington, pledging assistance from the Federal Aviation administration and other agencies as needed

The Boeing 747 300. delivered used to Korean Air in 1984. had attempted a landing at an airport that lacked both a main landing system and a government staffed control tower

In western Japan on Wednesday, a Seoul bound Ko rean Air Airbus A-300 devel oped engine trouble soon after taking off today from Kansai International Airport, forcing an emergency landing