Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea crash-landed at San Francisco Airport (SFO) at about 11:30 a.m. PDT.
The San Francisco Fire Department has confirmed that two people have died and 73 to 103 are injured, according to Reuters. One passenger remained unaccounted for.
There were 291 passengers and 16 crew members on board.
KTVU reports that 10 people, eight adults and two children, were critically injured and taken to San Francisco General Hospital. Many of the injuries were broken bones and/or burns.
The Aviation Herald reports the plane impacted the edge separating the runway from the San Francisco Bay, causing the tail, gear, and engines to separate and the aircraft to bounce and spin before coming to a stop left of the runway.
“We were approaching perfectly well, but we were too low,” Benjamin Levy, a passenger on the flight, told NBC News. “When the pilot realized it, he put some more gas to correct it, but it was too late, so we hit the runway pretty bad, and we started going up in the air again, and we landed pretty hard.”
Elliott Stone, another passenger on board, told CNN that flight attendants in the back of the plane "got hammered ... because we landed short."
"And then they all fell out. And it was just the most terrible thing I've seen," he added.
An unidentified aviation official speaking to The New York Times said the plane was not making an emergency landing and the situation was routine until the crash.
Here's the area of impact:
Soon after the crash, fire engulfed the aircraft as first responders rushed to the scene to put out the flames and rescue passengers escaping down emergency slides.
The airport was closed and flights were rerouted to San Jose, Oakland, and Los Angeles. SFO later reopened two runways around 3:30 p.m. PDT.
One airport official told KCBS that "this is a really tough day for [those of us] in the aviation industry."
KTVU notes that this is the first crash of a major airliner at SFO. Asiana has about 14.7 million passengers annually, and 268 daily flights.
The crash is only the second time that part of a Boeing 777 had been destroyed or has been damaged beyond economical repair during a flight, according to Flightaware.
@cnnbrk @cnn more photos my dad has sent from 777 crash pic.twitter.com/F0ekLTKwPv
— Bird (@EuniceBirdRah) July 6, 2013
Twitter broke the news:
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) July 6, 2013
RT @danblar: @NYCAviation @FlyerTalk @quallick live from SFO. pic.twitter.com/FhaRYTlIP2
— FlyersView (@FlyersView) July 6, 2013
Breaking news update: smoke appears to be getting worse, lots of emergency personal at site #SFO #planecrash pic.twitter.com/nfomCjp0Bs
— Krista Seiden (@kristaseiden) July 6, 2013
Fire Rages As Plane Crash Lands At San Francisco Airport http://t.co/R6lUZ6VQxq pic.twitter.com/BlZ1ikPmqb
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) July 6, 2013
This would be a very similar plane to the one that crashed at SFO this afternoon #Boeing777 pic.twitter.com/1JrjAMhi5U
— Alex McBurney (@LiveTVDirector) July 6, 2013
Aftermath of the Boeing 777 Asiana Flight at SFO pic.twitter.com/GhvDxS9b2L via @DanielleLWells
— Jamison (@jamucsb) July 6, 2013
