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At Least Two Dead in San Francisco Plane Crash 2 Die and Many Are Hurt as Plane Crashes in San Francisco
(35 minutes later)
An Asiana jetliner from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing Saturday at San Francisco International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Pieces of the airplane broke off as it careened down the runway, and at least two people were killed, according to the authorities. SAN FRANCISCO — An Asiana Airlines passenger jet traveling from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing Saturday at San Francisco International Airport, smashed into pieces and caught fire, killing at least two people and leaving five in critical condition.
As smoke poured from the plane carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew members, passengers scrambled out of emergency exits. Roughly 130 were rushed to area hospitals, including 10 people in critical condition, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said. Another 60 people remained unaccounted for hours after the crash, officials said, highlighting the chaos of the crash site and rescue effort. The crash of Flight 214 was the first in the United States since February 2009. Smoke billowed out of holes in the fuselage of the Boeing 777 on Saturday afternoon as firefighters rushed to douse the wreckage and passengers scrambled to safety down inflated escape chutes. The plane’s tail, landing gear and one of its engines were ripped off.
Passengers described slamming into the tarmac with tremendous force and rushing for safety as the smoke grew worse, billowing out of holes in the fuselage of the Boeing 777 as firefighters rushed to the wreckage on the runway. Aircraft parts scattered as the plane’s wheels, tail and engines were ripped off. “It hit with its tail, spun down the runway, and bounced,” said one witness, Stefanie Turner, 32. But despite incredible damage to the plane, left dismembered and scarred, with large chunks of its body burned away, many of the 291 aboard were able to walk away on their own.
“I looked up out the window and saw the plane coming in extremely fast and incredibly heavy,” said Isabella Lacaze, 18, from Fort Worth, who witnessed the crash from the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront. Forty-nine passengers were initially taken to area hospitals in serious condition, said Dale Carnes, the assistant deputy chief of the San Francisco Fire Department. An additional 132 passengers were taken to hospitals later. One hundred twenty-three were uninjured, and there whereabouts of one person was unknown.
“It came in at a 30- or 45-degree angle and the tail was way, way lower than the nose,” said another witness, Stefanie Turner, 32, from Arizona. “We observed multiple numbers of people coming down the chutes and walking to their safety,” said Joanne Hayes-White, the chief of the San Francisco Fire Department. Officials said they had searched the wreckage and found no bodies.
The plane clipped something as it touched down near the sea wall, Ms. Lacaze said. One passenger, a South Korean teenager wearing a yellow T-shirt and plaid shorts, said that the plane “went up and down, and then it hit the ground.”
“I remember watching the nose go to the ground and the tail way up in the air and then the tail back to ground hard,” Ms. Lacaze said, describing the plane careening out of control. At that point the tail snapped off and the rest of the plane skidded down the runway. “The top collapsed on people, so there were many injuries,” he said, referring to the overhead luggage compartments, before an airport official whisked him back into the Reflection Room, a quiet center in the airport for thought and meditation.
“The smoke was not bad at all at first,” she said. “It was like one cloud. It took maybe a minute or two for the chutes to come out of the side,” and people began to pour out almost immediately. The crash comes after a remarkable period of safety for airlines in the United States. It had been more than four years since the last fatal crash involving a commercial airliner — a record unmatched for half a century. Globally, too, last year was the safest since 1945, with 23 deadly accidents and 475 fatalities, according to the Aviation Safety Network, an accident researcher.
David Eun, who said in a Twitter message that he had been a passenger on the plane, posted a picture of a downed Asiana jetliner from ground level that showed some passengers walking away from the aircraft. It was not immediately clear what caused this plane to lose control on a clear summer morning. The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to from Washington, D.C., to investigate, and declined to speculate. But witnesses said that the plane approached the airport at an awkward angle, and seemed to hit its tail before bouncing down the runway. When it stopped, they said, passengers had scant time to escape before a blaze burned through the fuselage.
An aviation official who did not want to be identified said that the plane was not making an emergency landing and that the situation had been entirely routine until the crash. The cause was unclear. “I looked up out the window and saw the plane coming in extremely fast and incredibly heavy,” said Isabella Lacaze, 18, from Texas, who saw the crash from the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront.
Arnold Reiner, a retired airline captain and the former director of flight safety at Pan Am, said that it appeared from television images that the jetliner had touched down far earlier than the normal landing point, which is about 1,000 feet down the runway. That runway, 28 Left, has a “displaced threshold,” he said, meaning that the runway’s usable area does not begin at the start of the pavement. The Instrument Landing System would normally guide the pilot to the proper touchdown point, but in clear weather, pilots will sometimes fly a visual approach. “It came in at a 30- or 45-degree angle and the tail was way, way lower than the nose,” said another witness, Ms. Turner, 32. The tail hit first, she said, and the plane careened down the runway.
If the plane touched down too soon, before the paved area or before the area intended for landings, it might have torn off its landing gear, he said, and begin to skid along on its engine cowlings. “At that point, all bets are off,'’ he said, and the tail might have hit the ground with more force than the fuselage was intended to handle. “I remember watching the nose go to the ground and the tail way up in the air and then the tail back to ground hard,” Ms. Lacaze said. At that point, she said, the tail snapped off and the rest of the plane skidded down the runway.
One question for investigators, Mr. Reiner said, is who was at the controls. The 777 has a two-pilot cockpit but on a flight that long, there is typically a “relief pilot” or two on board, so no one has to work continuously for the entire flight. “The smoke was not bad at all at first,” she said. “It was like one cloud. It took maybe a minute or two for the chutes to come out of the side,” she said, and people began to pour out almost immediately.
Steven B. Wallace, who was the director of the office of accident investigation at the F.A.A. from 2000 to 2008, said that “it seems clear that the airplane hit short of the runway.” “The back got the worst of it,” a passenger on the plane, Elliot Stone, told CNN. He said that the plane seemed to be coming in at a sharp angle and just as they reached the runway, it seemed to gain speed. It hit the tarmac with tremendous force, he said, and the people in the back of the plan “got hammered.” “Everybody’s head goes up to the ceiling,” he said.
“Why that happened, I don’t know,” he said. Mr. Wallace, who is a licensed commercial pilot, said the pilot could have made a mistake and come in too low or there could have been wind shear. Some passengers scrambled out of the plane even before the chutes deployed, he said. A number of people lay injured near the wreckage for 20 to 30 minutes before ambulances arrived, Mr. Stone said. Many people got off relatively unscathed, he said, but he saw at least five people with severe injuries.
Even though the runway stretches to the sea wall, planes normally would not touch down until they had passed gold markings a safe distance down the runway. But videos show significant debris between the markings and the sea wall, he said. David Eun, who said in a Twitter message that he had been a passenger on the plane, posted a picture of a downed Asiana jetliner from ground level, which showed some passengers walking away from the aircraft.
The runway is 11,381 feet long and 200 feet wide. The designation 28 for the runway indicates that the plane was landing toward the west. Flame retardant materials inside the plane, including foil wrapping under the seats, most likely helped protect many passengers said Steven B. Wallace, who was the director of the office of accident investigation at the Federal Aviation Administration from 2000 to 2008.
The 777 has an exceptionally capable flight data recorder, one of the two “black boxes” on the plane, which could quickly provide important details. The F.A.A. has required the use of such materials for several decades. Mr. Wallace said that even though an Air France A340 suffered a worse fire after overrunning a runway in Toronto in 2005, all 309 people on board survived. Only 12 were seriously injured.
The last few years have been an exceptionally safe period for airline travel in the United States. The last crash was in February 2009, when a twin-engine Continental turboprop approaching Buffalo on a flight from Newark crashed into a house about five miles from the airport. All 44 passengers and the crew of four died, along with one person on the ground. “It seems clear that the airplane hit short of the runway,” Mr. Wallace said. “Why that happened, I don’t know.”
Korean carriers have historically had more difficulty. Mr. Wallace, who is a licensed commercial pilot, said the pilot could have made a mistake and come in too low or there could have been wind shear.
In August 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration froze service from Korean carriers coming into the United States, limiting them to the schedules and aircraft they were then flying, because it considered safety regulation by the South Korean government inadequate. The restrictions were later lifted. An aviation official, who did not want to be identified discussing a developing investigation, said that the plane was not making an emergency landing, and that the situation had been routine until the crash.
In December, 1999, a Korean Airlines 747 cargo jet crashed near London. In August, 1997, a Korean Air 747 came in short of the runway in Guam, killing 228 people. If the plane touched down too soon, before the tarmac or before the area intended for landings, it may have torn off its landing gear, and been skidding along on its engine cowlings, said Arnold Reiner, a retired airline captain and the former director of flight safety at Pan Am. “At that point, all bets are off,” he said, and the tail may have hit the ground with more force than the fuselage was intended to handle.
Asiana Airlines, established in 1988, is based in South Korea and also flies to Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and New York, in addition to various destinations in Europe, the Russian far east, China, Southeast Asia and elsewhere. It operates 12 Boeing 777 extended-range aircraft, according to its Web site, and offers suites for first-class passengers with what is described as the world’s largest television screens for individual travelers. One question for investigators, Mr. Reiner said, is who was at the controls. The 777 has a two-pilot cockpit but on a flight that long, there is typically a “relief pilot” or two on board, so no one has to work continuously for such a long period. That may have resulted in a junior person at the controls.

Christopher Drew, Norimitsu Onishi, Marc Santora and Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.

South Korean carriers have faced safety difficulties in the past. In August, 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration froze service from South Korean carriers coming into the United States, limiting them to the schedules and aircraft they were then flying, because it said that safety regulation by the South Korean government was inadequate. The restrictions were later lifted.
In December, 1999, a Korean Air Lines 747 cargo jet crashed near London. Delta Air Lines canceled its code-share agreement with Korean until Korean improved. In August, 1997, a Korean Air 747 came in short of the runway in Guam, killing 228 people.
Asiana Airlines, established in 1988, is based in South Korea and flies to Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and New York, in addition to destinations in Europe, the Russian far east, China, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
It said in a statement that it was trying to find the number of casualties, and the cause of the accident and “will cooperate with the related authorities.” Of the 291 passengers, the statement said, 77 were South Koreans, 141 Chinese, 61 American and one Japanese. A crew of 16 was also on board.
The transportation safety board said it would examine a variety of factors, including human performance, weather and maintenance issues in its investigation. Mr. Wallace said the flight data recorder on the Asiana 777 was probably in the part of the tail that was severed. But he said the containers for the recorders are so rugged that the data should be intact.

Norimitsu Onishi reported from San Francisco, and Ravi Somaiya from New York. Reporting was contributed by Vindu Goel, John Markoff and Somini Sengupta from San Francisco; Christopher Drew, Jad Mouawad, Marc Santora and Michael Schwirtz from New York; Matthew L. Wald from Washington; and Choe Sang-hun from Seoul, South Korea. Susan Beachy contributed research.