According to multiple on-the-ground reports, a Boeing 777 operated by Asiana Airlines crashed during landing at San Francisco International airport Saturday afternoon.Update, 3:57 p.m.: CBS’s San Francisco affiliate KPIX reports there were 291 people on board the flight, including passengers and the crew. There are unconfirmed reports that at least one person has been airlifted to a local hospital because of the crash, but otherwise there’s still no word on injuries yet. Emergency crews are reportedly working in the San Francisco bay, too.
The circumstances surrounding the crash are already unusual. An official told The New York Times’ Ravi Somaiya that the plane was not making an emergency landing. Passengers inside the flight have reported all was normal until they heard a loud bang. Suddenly there was a lot of smoke and debris coming from the back of the plane. And conditions in San Francisco were perfect today, potentially ruling out any sort of weather interference.
Via The Atlantic Wire’s Phillip Bump, this KTVU live shot shows the plane’s tail in three pieces:
Update, 3:35 p.m.: This San Francisco resident uploaded this wide shot from his house:
Plane crash at #SFO. View from my house. This looks bad! pic.twitter.com/toK6QatycE
— Marc Escuro (@mgescuro)And KTVU has this horrific looking aerial shot of the plane after the crash. The top of the plane is charred black as emergency crews are still fighting to put out fires. You can clearly see the tail of the plane is detached and that the plane landed on its belly (contradicting some other reports):
Aerial shot from KTVU: pic.twitter.com/15B8nkJDtQ
— Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)Still no word on injuries yet.
Original: According to multiple on-the-ground reports, a Boeing 777 operated by Asiana Airlines crashed during landing at San Francisco International airport Saturday afternoon. The FAA confirmed a crash occurred without naming the flight or the number of injuries, but Asiana flight 214 from Seoul is thought to be the plane that crashed. According to Emergency in San Francisco, 44 people have already been rescued. According to a KTVU witness report, the plane was just about to land when the tail of the plane fell off. One witness uploaded a picture of the plane immediately after being rescued:
I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I’m ok. Surreal… (at @flySFO) [pic] — https://t.co/E6Ur1XEfa4
— David Eun (@Eunner)Reports started coming in on social media almost immediately as bystanders waiting for other flights reported what they saw:
we were walking back from breakfast, stopped to take a picture of the runway, and a landing plane came in at a bad angle, flipped, exploded
— stefanielaine (@stefanielaine)we saw the rescue slides come out, not sure whether that means there were survivors. the plane completely broke apart, smoke pouring out
— stefanielaine (@stefanielaine)This same witness actually got a picture of the crash while it was happening:
just realized I have a picture of the actual crash. holy fucking shit. pic.twitter.com/5TnOX96Gsi
— stefanielaine (@stefanielaine)There are no injuries reported yet but passengers are reportedly being evacuated:
People being evacuated via the emergency slides at the plane #crash at #SFO pic.twitter.com/BK4qq1e3qN
— Krista Seiden (@kristaseiden)
