On July 6, 2013, a plane – Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 – crashed at San Francisco’s airport arriving from Seoul, South Korea. It had been an uneventful 10-plus hour flight from Seoul, approaching San Francisco’s airport on a clear summer day. Then, in a few horrifying seconds, that calm was shattered.
A fireball erupted after the Boeing 777 airliner hit the runway hard around 11:30 a.m., rocked back and forth, spun around, sheered off the plane’s tail. Scores of passengers and crew climbed out — some jumping, others sliding down evacuation chutes as flames and smoke billowed from the aircraft’s windows. It is believed that one engine and the tail fin had broken away during the crash.
A passenger, Benjamin Levy, said, “We were so close to the water, the water got sprayed up. There were walls of water beside the window — before we started hitting earth.”
The flight was carrying 300, plus crew. Over 180 people escaped with minor injuries and are now being treated in hospital – 49 of those have serious injuries, which could be life-threatening. Two Chinese schoolgirls, both 16-years-old were found dead outside the plane, according to San Francisco fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White. “My understanding is that they were found on the runway,” she said.
Asiana Airline Flight 214 was going “very slowly and tried to abort landing before it crashed,” said Mike Barr, NTSB official and former military pilot. There were 4 pilots operating the plane had been flying for Asiana since 1994 and were “very experienced” pilots.
There is no apparent cause yet determined for the flight 214 crash, but the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. A national security official said there are no signs of terrorism related to the crash.
By Jameel Choudhury
