SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea,
crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport on
Saturday, killing at least two people, injuring dozens of others and
forcing passengers to jump down the emergency inflatable slides to
safety as flames tore through the plane.
More than 60 people were also unaccounted for from among the 307
passengers and crew aboard the flight, said San Francisco Fire Chief
Joanne Hayes-White. It wasn't immediately clear where they were, but she
said they weren't all presumed dead at this time.
"This is a work in progress," she said, adding the investigation has
been turned over to the FBI and that terrorism has been ruled out. She
said at least 48 people were initially transported from the scene to
area hospitals.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Flight 214 crashed while
landing before noon PDT. A video clip posted to YouTube showed smoke
coming from a jet on the tarmac. Passengers could be seen jumping down
the emergency slides.
Television footage showed the top of the fuselage was burned away and
the entire tail was gone. One engine appeared to have broken away.
Pieces of the tail were strewn about the runway. Emergency responders
could be seen walking inside the burned-out wreckage.
It wasn't immediately clear what happened to the plane as it was
landing, but some eyewitnesses said the aircraft pilot seemed to lose
control and that the tail may have hit the ground.
Stephanie Turner saw the plane going down and the rescue slides deploy,
but returned to her hotel room before seeing any passengers get off the
jet, she told ABC News. Turner said when she first saw the flight she
noticed right away that the angle of its approach seemed strange.
"I mean we were sure that we had just seen a lot of people die. It was
awful," she said. "And it looked like the plane had completely broken
apart. There were flames and smoke just billowing."
Kate Belding was out jogging just before 11:30 am on a path across the
water from the airport when she noticed the plane approaching the runway
in a way that "just didn't look like it was coming in quite right."
"Then all of a sudden I saw what looked like a cloud of dirt puffing up
and then there was a big bang and it kind of looked like the plane maybe
bounced (as it neared the ground)," she said. "I couldn't really tell
what happened, but you saw the wings going up and (in) a weird angle."
"Not like it was cartwheeling," she said, but rather as though the wings were almost swaying from side to side.
Doug Yakel, a spokesman for the airport, said he did not yet know how
many passengers were aboard the flight. "We also don't have any
information at this time to the status of those passengers," he said at a
brief news conference.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of
investigators to San Francisco to probe the crash. NTSB spokeswoman
Kelly Nantel said Saturday that NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman would head
the team.
Boeing said it was preparing to provide technical assistance to the
NTSB. The maker of the plane's engines, Pratt & Whitney, said it was
cooperating with authorities investigating the crash.
Numerous flights headed to San Francisco were diverted to other
airports. A United Airlines flight bound for San Francisco was sent to
Los Angeles airport, and passengers were told the San Francisco airport
would be closed for at least three hours Saturday afternoon.
Asiana is a South Korean airline, second in size to national carrier
Korean Air. It has recently tried to expand its presence in the United
States, and joined the Star Alliance, which is anchored in the US by
United Airlines.
The flight was 10 hours and 23 minutes, according to FlightAware, a
flight tracking service. The aircraft is configured to seat 295
passengers, it said. The 777 is a smaller, wide-body jet that can travel
long distances without refuelling and is typically used for long
flights over water.
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