Asiana flight 214 from Seoul crashes at SFO - 2 dead, dozens injured

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Updated: June 8   

There was a crew of four pilots aboard, alternating in pairs. The pilots at the time of the incident were Lee Jeong-min, who has 12,387 hours of flying experience and 3,220 with the 777, and Lee Kang-kook, who has 9,793 flying hours. Lee Kang-kook was in training for flying the 777, and this was his first landing at San Francisco in this aircraft type, although he was an experienced pilot and had previously landed there in other aircraft including the Boeing 747. He had 43 hours of experience flying the B777-200.

San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne Hayes-White confirmed that there were two deaths; both were 16-year-old female Chinese passport holders with both bodies found outside the aircraft. Five people were in critical condition. Nine area hospitals accepted a total of 182 injured. Hayes-White told a subsequent press conference that all persons had been accounted for after reconciliation of two intake points at the airport, although an earlier report said that 60 persons were unaccounted for.

Seventy students and teachers traveling to the United States for summer camp were among the Chinese passengers. Thirty of the students and teachers were from Shanxi, and the others were from Zhejiang. Five of the teachers and 29 of the students were from Jiangshan High School in Zhejiang traveling together in one group. 35 of the students were to attend a West Valley Christian School summer camp.

One teacher received minor injuries, and the two deceased passengers were from the West Valley camp group.  The coroner investigating their deaths and a fire department spokesperson have indicated that one of the two girls may have survived the crash, but could have been killed by a fire truck responding to the scene.

 

Several passengers recalled noticing the plane's unusual proximity to the Bay, appearing as "walls of water" out of the port and starboard viewports, prior to the engines revving up in the final moments before impact.

Upon collision, oxygen masks were said to have deployed immediately. There were also reports of electrical sparking inside the cabin after the aircraft came to rest. Some passengers sitting at the rear of the vehicle escaped through the hole left by the missing tail section.

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation and sent a crew to the scene.

On July 7, 2013, NTSB investigators recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder and transported them to Washington, D.C., for analysis. The preliminary indications suggest the plane came in too short and hit the seawall as it attempted to land. The NTSB said it appeared that the pilots were flying too slowly on final approach and the throttles were set to idle. The sound of the stick shaker (warning of approach to stall) could be heard approximately 4 seconds prior to impact on the cockpit voice recorder. The crew attempted to go around 1.5 seconds before impact and the engines appeared to respond normally.

The coroner of San Mateo County, Robert Foucrault, is conducting autopsies on the deceased and is attempting to determine whether a collision with an emergency vehicle played a role in one of the fatalities.




An Asiana flight from Seoul to San Francisco crashed at 11:28a PDT(3:28amKST) during landing at San Francisco airport.  The Boeing 777 reportedly had  291 passengers and 16 crew members on board ,Two deaths have been reported, along with more than 100 injured and hospitalized. The dead have been identified as two sixteen year old Chinese citizens whose bodies were found on the runway some distance from where the aircraft finally stopped.  
According to a press release from Asiana, "the majority of the passengers were comprised of 77 Korean citizens, 141 Chinese citizens, 61 US citizens, 1 Japanese citizen, etc. for a total of 291 people".   

Elliot Stone, a passenger on the plane told CNN that as soon as the plane landed "All of a sudden, boom, the back end just hit and flies up into the air and everyone's head goes up the ceiling".  Apparently the tail of the plane broke off and fire broke out immediately after landing. Some passengers escaped by simply jumping out of the plane, while others used emergency slides.  Stay tuned for more updates.


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A photo shared on Twitter by one of the passengers [@Eunner ]