Asiana Airline Flight 214 Crashed In San Francisco

[keyboard]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boeing-777-catches-fire-sfo-runway-report-article-1.1391790

 

 

San Francisco plane crash: 2 dead, 182 injured after Asiana Airline Flight 214 crash lands and bursts into flames 305 passengers and crew walked away from an Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul that crashed and tumbled to a screeching halt while landing Saturday at the California airport. Officials are still investigating the cause of the crash.
By David Knowles , Beth Stebner AND Larry Mcshane / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Saturday, July 6, 2013, 3:06 PM Updated: Sunday, July 7, 2013, 3:05 AM

 

John Green/AP  

Fire crews work the crash site of Asiana Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Saturday, July 6, 2013. 

 

A crowded Asiana Airlines flight crashed, flipped and burned in a botched Saturday landing at San Francisco Airport, killing two and injuring dozens more in a fiery wreck.

Flight 214 from Seoul lost its tail and most of its charred roof while spreading a debris trail across the tarmac, with 182 people aboard injured during its mad runway skid, officials said.

Scores of dazed and still-reeling passengers incredibly escaped the smoldering Boeing 777 wreckage — including New York frequent flier David Eun.

“I just crash-landed at SFO,” the digital media maven tweeted shortly after fleeing the flaming plane. “Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I’m ok. Surreal.”

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images The plane, coming from Seoul, crashed soon after it touched ground.

The midday disaster was something of a miracle, with 305 of the 307 people aboard surviving 10 seconds of terror during an otherwise routine landing in blue skies, good visibility and soft winds.

The captain and crew offered no warning before passengers heard a loud smash as the plane roughly touched down. Luggage tumbled from the overhead bins as the plane careened out of control.

“We knew something was horribly wrong,” said passenger Vedpal Singh, who suffered a fractured collarbone. “It’s miraculous we survived.”

A plume of black smoke was soon visible for miles around the airport by the bay. The bodies of the two victims were found on the runway and were identified by South Korean officials only as Chinese passport holders.

Polaris Passengers aboard the Asiana Airlines flight that crashed at San Francisco International Airport arrive at San Francisco General Hospital on Saturday.

Eun provided a 140-character blow-by-blow of the horrific crash landing on a perfect California day.

“Fire and rescue people all over the place,” wrote Eun, one of several passengers still taken through customs after the crash. “They’re evacuating the injured. Haven’t felt this way since 9/11.”

PHOTOS: PHOTOS: SAN FRANCISCO PLANE CRASH

The wounded — including six in critical condition, and others with bone fractures and spinal injuries from the force of the wreck — were taken to nine local hospitals.

CNN “The angle wasn’t right,” as the plane started to land, an eyewitness said.

The victims include 26 kids taken for treatment to San Francisco General Hospital, said spokeswoman Rachel Kagan.

Authorities said all the people from the international flight were accounted for hours after the crash landing.

Passengers fled the crippled craft by jumping onto inflatable emergency slides as smoked swirled into the sky and first responders sprayed foam on the burning fuselage in a chaotic scene on the runway.

The plane, with 291 passengers and a crew of 16, went down at 11:26 a.m. PDT after a flight from Seoul of more than 10 hours. The flight included mostly South Korean and Chinese travelers, along with 61 Americans.

Polaris More passengers from the Boeing 777 that crashed in San Francisco were taken to nearby hospitals. Two people have been reported dead from the crash. 

The first indication of any problem was chatter from the San Francisco control tower calling for emergency vehicles.

“Asiana 214, heavy,” says a voice from the tower. “Emergency vehicles are responding. They have everyone on their way.”

Witnesses and one passenger said the plane was taking an erratic path on its approach, with some reporting its nose was pointed down before one wing clipped the ground.

Others said the plane’s tail clipped the runway first and snapped off, putting the aircraft into its deadly spin.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images The Boeing 777 airplane lies burned on the runway after it crash landed at San Francisco International Airport.

Martial artist Elliott Stone told CNN the plane came down “a little sharp.”

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“Boom! The back end just hit and flies up in the air and everyone’s head goes up in the ceiling,” said Stone. “We fishtailed for 300 yards, rolled over, and then the fire started.”

There was also some suggestion that the pilot came up short on the landing — and hit the seawall where the runway ends and San Francisco Bay begins.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was far too soon to know what happened.

ABC News 7 A Boeing 777 airplane crash survivor speaks with the media after the plane he was on crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, 2013 in San Francisco, California. An Asiana Airlines passenger aircraft coming from Seoul, South Korea crashed while landing.

“The angle wasn’t right,” eyewitness Stephanie Turner told ABC News about the plane’s unsteady descent. “It didn’t manage to straighten out before hitting the runway. ... The plane 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.”

Witness Anthony Castorani told CNN the plane flipped in a terrifying tableau as it touched down.

“You heard a pop, and you immediately saw a large, brief fireball,” he said. “At that moment, you could see that the aircraft was again starting to lift and it began to cartwheel.”

Jeff Chiu/AP The tail of Asiana Flight 214 is seen after it crashed at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Saturday, July 6, 2013. 

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Officials quickly ruled out one possible cause of the crash.

“At this time, there is no indication of terrorism involved,” said David Johnson, head of the San Francisco FBI office.

The top of the plane’s fuselage was missing in the crash aftermath, with charred evidence of a raging fire that burned through its roof visible.

  There was little warning of a bad approach to the San Francisco International Airport runway before disaster struck.

Its tail was torn off and pieces of the plane were strewn along the runway at the California airport.

Stone said five flight attendants were sent sailing to the tarmac when the tail was ripped free.

“The most terrible thing I’ve ever seen,” said Stone, who was looking back from his seat in the middle of the plane.

A teenage passenger described a stomach-turning sequence once the plane made its hard landing.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP An aerial photo shows the crash site of Asiana Flight 214 and the nearby runway that was still in use.

“The plane jolted up and down, and then it flipped, and then it hit the ground,” the young man said. “The top just totally collapsed on a lot of people.”

A security officer then hustled the youth away before he could answer any questions.

Kate Belding was jogging when she looked up to see the plane making its descent.

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New York Daily News Since 9/11 there were five deadly aircraft crashes before Saturday's shocking accident in San Francisco.

The big aircraft “just didn’t look like it was coming in quite right,” she recalled. “Then, all of a sudden, I saw what looked like a cloud of dirt and then there was a big bang, and it looked like the plane maybe bounced.”

The scene around the plane was crazed, with passengers fleeing as first responders rushed in.

Eun keep tweeting, even as he remained stuck in the airport for hours. He was finally allowed to leave about seven hours after the crash.

“Adrenaline rush is subsiding,” he wrote. “Just trying to process this ... Thanks everyone for your support and good wishes! Wishing the best for those who were hurt.”

HANDOUT/REUTERS At least 180 people were taken to the hospital from the crash.

New Yorker Ying Kong was waiting at the airport for her brother-in-law when the plane went down. Fawen Yan, 47, of Richmond, Calif., finally called to let her know he was fine.

Yan recounted that it was “really smoky and scary,” said Kong, of Albany. “He feels difficult to breathe, but he’s okay. He said a lot of people had to run. He said some people got hurt.”

Alexsander Rodriguez, 38, was waiting for takeoff on the airport tarmac when he heard a startling sound.”

“It was a really big noise,” he recounted. “I turned and looked and saw the tail. It was going the wrong way and the landing gear was there.

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“I saw people coming down the chutes. A couple minutes after, we saw flames and one of the engines started to burn.”

DanielleLWells via Twitter Smoke billowed from the crashed plane after its fiery landing.

The NTSB said its three West Coast investigators were already headed to the crash site. A team from Washington was heading west to join them.

NTSB head Debbie Hersman said the investigation would include examining information from the cockpit and flight information recorders.

“We have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We have not determined what the focus of this investigation is.”

Asked specifically about pilot error, Hersman replied, “Everything’s on the table.”

Noah Berger/AP A fire truck sprays water on the Asiana plane after it crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, July 6, 2013.

Survivor Benjamin Levy, speaking to a local NBC station, said he thought the pilot came in too low and a bit too fast for the landing.

“I know the airport pretty well, so I realized the guy ... somehow he was not going to hit the runway on time,” Levy said. “So he was too low ... he put some gas and tried to go up again.”

At that point, the plane hit hard, bounced in the air, and slammed down against the ground.

“We got pretty much everyone in the back section of the plane out,” he said. “When we got out there was some smoke. There was no fire then, the fire came afterward.”

CNN As passengers were seen fleeing down inflatable slides, first responders sprayed foam on the burning plane.

The airport was immediately shut down pending the joint FBI-NTSB investigation, with numerous flights diverted to other airports. 

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Hours later, two of the airport’s four runways were reopened as flights arrived and departed near the burned-out shell of the Asiana plane.

More than 340 flights, both inbound and outbound were canceled after the fatal wreck.

Marilyn McCullough A view of the crashed Boeing 777 from another plane at the airport.

Boeing issued a statement promising to assist the NTSB in its probe.

“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by today’s incident at SFO,” said the company statement.

The 777-200 is a long-range, twin-engine plane often used for flights of 12 hours or more — mostly from trips from one continent to another.

It’s one of the world’s most popular long-distance planes, used by U.S. airlines like United, American and Delta. The Saturday deaths marked the first time the reliable crafts were involved in a fatality.

Asiana is the second-largest airline in South Korea, behind the national carrier Korean Air. It issued its own statement offering help to determine what went so horribly wrong.

The airline has suffered several crashes outside the U.S. in recent years. On July 28, 2011, an Asiana Air Boeing 747 freighter crashed in South Korean waters. Two pilots were killed, and the resulting rescue and recovery cost $190 million.

In 1993, a domestic Asiana passenger jet slammed into a hill in southwestern South Korea, killing 68 people on board.

The last major fatal U.S. crash came in February 2009, when a Continental Express flight operated by Colgan Air crashed into a house near Buffalo.

The crash killed all 49 people on board and one man inside the house. 

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With Geoff Gillette, Carol Kuruvilla and News Wire Services

lmcshane@nydailynews.com

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Omg! And i actually first heard it here rather than news website.

[bodybuildMLY]

I've taken Asiana (OZ 751) before from Singapore to Incheon, South Korea. It is pretty good and safe. When I have googled all previous crashes, they were from Boeing 700s, including this one. The Asiana flight that I took was Airbus (A300s)

[keyboard]

There are too many factors that can cause plane crashes. Thus doesn't matter even if the maintenance is top quality, it can still be ruined by weather or pilot error. Remember the Qantas Airbus that blew out the engine over Batam few years ago?

[schmuckisms]

It's not about the plane- all modern widebodies are very, very reliable. A330 only had 1 severe incident, same for the 747-400; and this 777 incident is considered light among hull losses.

[ChiSquare]

Sitting at the rear of the plane after the wings is still safer. The second pic has proven my point again...

[Guest LONEly NIGht]

Whenever I heard of plane crash, I start thinking of my idol -que sakamoto, plane crash victim. Rip

[azimuth]

I got the hunch it may not pilot error on this one. Let's wait and see the investigation results.

[ChiSquare]

Somehow it seems that there is some technical errors but the pilot decision to go-around came too late.

Edited July 8, 2013 by ChiSquare

[azimuth]

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/asiana-crash-airline-says-pilot-had-little-experience-777s-20130708

 

Looks more and more like a case of an inexperienced pilot trying to land the plane.

[ChiSquare]

Plus he do not have ILS to assist him...

43 hours only can fly long haul?...hmmm

Edited July 8, 2013 by ChiSquare

[keyboard]

Why is number of flying hours used to determine a pilot experience when most of the time they are doing "nothing" in the air?

[ChiSquare]

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/world/story/asiana-crash-airline-says-pilot-crashed-plane-was-training-20130708

 

The co-pilot have more flying experience on the 777 than the captain... irony.

 

Keyboard, yes most of the time they do nothing in the air but they still have to monitor their instruments regularly for abnormalities and be ready to handle situations. Flying hours also include take-offs and landings mah.

[keyboard]

True lah, what I mean to say is that most plane crash is during take-off/landing. So monitoring situations in the air doesn't really help in the experience. I was thinking along the lines of a short-haul pilot flying the same type of aircraft will be more experienced than a long-haul pilot with more flying hours.

 

And the theory of the back of the plane is more sturdy, not sure if it still applies to the newer planes, think the 2 dead is sitting at the back of the plane.