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A Boeing 777 aircraft crashed on the runway at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday morning, killing at least two people and injuring dozens of others, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said.
The Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Seoul, Korea was coming in for a landing when the tail end of the plane slammed into a rocky berm or sea wall near the edge of the San Francisco Bay and the runway, according to witness reports. Hayes-White said the plane originated in Shanghai, China.
YouTube videos showed the fire and wreckage.
The plane then appeared to skid off the runway and rested in a dirt right-of-way. The fuselage caught fire.
About 307 people were on the aircraft, including 16 crew members, Hayes-White said. Forty-eight were immediately taken to area hospitals in San Francisco and San Mateo County.
So far 36 people have been treated at Stanford University Medical Center’s emergency department, hospital spokeswoman Ashley Georgian said. That number could change. She said it is hospital policy not to release information on patients’ conditions.
At a 5:30 p.m. press conference, officials updated the numbers to 181 people hospitalized with 49 of the patients having serious injuries.mtwo patients were killed and 123 people were not injured.
Officials earlier said 60 people were missing, but all but one have now been accounted for.
Ten people were known to be in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital when they arrived. Rachel Kagan, a spokeswoman for San Francisco General said eight are adults and two are children.
Patients are arriving with burns, fractures, head injuries, spinal compressions and injuries requiring immediate surgery.
“The whole variety of injuries you would associate with a crash and fire,” she said.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said on Twitter that she was supposed to be on the flight.
“Taking a minute to be thankful and explain what happened. My family, colleagues Debbie Frost, Charlton Gholson and Kelly Hoffman and I were originally going to take the Asiana flight that just crash-landed. We switched to United so we could use miles for my family’s tickets. Our flight was scheduled to come in at the same time, but we were early and landed about 20 minutes before the crash. … Serious moment to give thanks,” she wrote.
Samsung Executive David Eun said in Twitter posts that most people seemed to have minor injuries.
“I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I’m OK. Surreal,” he said. He described the passengers as relatively calm.
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokeswoman said three inspectors were traveling to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. Teams will be flying out from Washington D.C. And will be looking at all possible reasons for the crash, she said. She did not have further information.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman said there is no indication of terrorism. The FBI would be working to investigate the cause of the crash, he said.
Airport officials had initially shut down the airport, but by 3:45 p.m. two runways were reopened. Rosemary Barnes, a spokeswoman for San Jose International Airport, said the airport had accepted 17 flights from SFO and was expected to take 10 other flights.
Yeah, like all we care about here is that Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was supposed to be on the flight.
I was also supposed to be on the flight, but I had previously cancelled that trip to Seoul that I had never planned. Where’s my sympathy?
God it was pathetic watching the news try to talk about this event for 12+ hours.
There was maybe 5 minutes worth of real information to be shared. The rest was just nonsense.
Not that I watched all 12 hours. But I would tune in every once in a while and they’d be saying the exact same thing.. over and over and over.