Boeing 777 crashes while landing at San Francisco airport A Boeing 777 jetliner crashed and burst into flames at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight across the Pacific Ocean from South Korea. Early reports said at least two people were killed and dozens injured, but the full extent of the casualties was not clear. The plane, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Seoul, came to rest in a field beside the runway — missing its tail, spewing black smoke and with most of the top of the fuselage ripped or burned off. Photos and video from the scene showed at least some passengers sliding down the emergency chutes and walking away. Federal investigators said it was too early to determine a cause, but sources told NBC News that the pilot did not make a distress call before landing, and that it appeared the plane came in short and clipped a seawall with its tail. The plane crashed in favorable weather — partly cloudy skies and light wind. Boeing 777 crashes while landing at San Francisco airport By Erin McClam and Daniel Arkin, NBC News A Boeing 777 jetliner crashed and burst into flames at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight across the Pacific Ocean from South Korea. Early reports said at least two people were killed and dozens injured, but the full extent of the casualties was not clear. The plane, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 from Seoul, came to rest in a field beside the runway — missing its tail, spewing black smoke and with most of the top of the fuselage ripped or burned off. Photos and video from the scene showed at least some passengers sliding down the emergency chutes and walking away. Federal investigators said it was too early to determine a cause, but sources told NBC News that the pilot did not make a distress call before landing, and that it appeared the plane came in short and clipped a seawall with its tail. The plane crashed in favorable weather — partly cloudy skies and light wind. The last crash of a jumbo jet in the United States was in November 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in a New York neighborhood. The last fatal crash of any commercial plane in the U.S. was in February 2009, when a Continental Airlines regional flight crashed into a house near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 49 people. The flight tracking service FlightAware said that Asiana 214 flew about 10 and a half hours after taking off from Inchon airport at 5:04 p.m. local time, about half an hour late. The service identified the model as a Boeing 777-200, which has a wingspan of almost 200 feet and can carry as many as 440 people. The manufacturing company Pratt & Whitney said the plane was powered by its PW4000 engines. Federal sources told NBC News that there was no indication of terrorism. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a full team to San Francisco. Boeing said it was gathering information. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by today’s incident at SFO,” Boeing said on its Twitter account. “We stand ready to assist the NTSB.”
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 23:18:30 +0000
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