At least two people were killed and scores left injured when
an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crash landed at San Francisco International
Airport yesterday, causing flight attendants to “fall out the back” of the
plane as the tail broke off.
Survivors of Asiana Flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea, have
described the horror as the plane, with more than 300 people on board, clipped
a seawall short of the runway at the airport, snapping off its tail and
bursting into flames just before noon yesterday (local time (8pm BST) .
“Right when it appeared to coast for the landing ... (he) sped
up, like the pilot knew he was short,” passenger Elliott Stone told CNN.
“And then the back end just hit, and flies up in the air,
and everybody’s head goes up to the ceiling. And then it just kind of drifts
for a little bit, for a good 300 yards and then tips over. Fire starts.”
Mr Stone, who was sitting in the middle of the plane, said
he was able to evacuate safely after the crash, but the flight attendants
sitting in the back “got hammered - because we landed short”.
“And then they all fell out - and it was just the most
terrible thing I’ve seen,” Mr Stone said.
Asiana Flight 214 was carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew.
An airport spokesman Doug Yakel said two people were killed in the crash, while
one person remains unaccounted for. At least 181 people, including children,
were left injured. San Francisco General Hospital said it was treating 34
patients, five of them in critical condition.
David Eun, an executive for Samsung, said he had been on the
plane and posted a picture of the crash on Twitter. He said: “I just crash
landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I’m ok. Surreal...”
Witnesses described seeing passengers jumping down the
emergency slides, while moments later plumes of smoke could be seen rising from
a large fireball later that erupted from the plane wreckage.
Video footage showed the jet on its belly surrounded by fire-fighters
with a trail of debris scattered on the runway and in the surrounding area.
The airport was closed immediately after the incident but
two runways later reopened, and some planes were seen taxiing slowly past the
Asian wreckage. Some flights were diverted to Los Angeles.
Among those on board were 77 Koreans, 141 Chinese, 61 US
citizens, and one Japanese national, Asiana said in a statement.
Local media cited multiple witnesses who said the plane had
approached the runway at an awkward angle, with several onlookers saying they
then heard a loud bang.
“You heard a pop and you immediately saw a large, brief
fireball that came from underneath the aircraft,” Anthony Castorani, who saw
the crash from a nearby hotel, told CNN.
Another witnesses told CNN: “It looked normal at first...
the wheels were down. It just hit (the seawall) like that and the whole thing
just collapsed immediately. It just pancaked immediately. The wings caught on
the tarmac.”
Stephanie Turner saw the plane going down and the rescue
slides deploy. She said when she first saw the flight she noticed right away
that the angle of its approach seemed strange.
She added: “It didn’t manage to straighten out before
hitting the runway. So the tail of the plane hit the runway, and it cartwheeled
and spun and the tail broke off... I mean we were sure that we had just seen a
lot of people die. It was awful. And it looked like the plane had completely
broken apart. There were flames and smoke just billowing.”
The main upright tail stabiliser appeared to have snapped
off. Much of the upper portion of the fuselage had burned through, leaving
gaping scorched holes in the roof.
The White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed
on the incident, noting: “His thoughts and prayers go out to the families who
lost a loved one and all those affected by the crash.”
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined and the
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was sending a team to
investigate.
An aviation official said the plane had not been making an
emergency landing. Early indications suggest that everything was normal until
the crash.
According to reports, Asiana Flight 214 had flown 7,257
miles over the course of 10 hours and 23 minutes - just slightly longer than
its planned route.
Asiana is based in Seoul. The twin-engine 777 aircraft is
one of the world’s most popular long-distance planes, often used for flights of
12 hours or more, from one continent to another.
In January 2008, a 777 operated by British Airways crashed
short of the runway at Heathrow, arriving from Beijing. The accident was
attributed to an accumulation of ice in fuel lines. Though the BA plane was
destroyed, there was only one serious injury on board.
Asiana is the second largest national airline in South Korea
to Korean Air and has recently expanded its presence in the United States.
Federal officers have reportedly told NBC News there was no indication
terrorism was to blame.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic flights bound for San
Francisco were diverted to Seattle and Vancouver after the airport was closed,
but flights were still leaving Heathrow as scheduled.
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