Deadly plane crash at San Francisco airport
Authorities have confirmed that at least two people have died and one passenger is unaccounted for in a plane crash at San Francisco airport.
San Francisco airport spokesman Doug Yakel said that 181 of the 307 people, 291 passengers and 16 crew, on board the Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea, were being treated in local hospitals.
The remaining passengers did not require treatment.
Peter Goelz, former director of the National Transport Safety Board told A Jazeera that the engines would be carefully examined due to similarities with a similar Boeing 777 crash in Heathrow five years ago.
Al Jazeera's Matt McFetridge, reporting from San Francisco, said that there were many eye witnesses to the crash
"What we do have is a lot of eye witness reports, all of which say that that plane hit the tarmac and just broke apart," he said.
The Boeing 777 was supposed to land on runway 28 left at the San Francisco International Airport, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. Brown said the crash occurred at 11:26 PDT (18:26 GMT).
She said the sequence of events was still unclear, but it appeared the plane landed and then crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board says it is sending a team of investigators headed by its Chairman Deborah Hersman to San Francisco to probe the crash.
Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, said that investigators were already on their way to the airport and that all flights have been suspended.
Images from television station KTVU in San Francisco showed extensive fire damage to the aeroplane, which had lost its tail in the crash.
Debris strewn
Fire engines were on scene and the fire, which had burned through the cabin's roof, appeared to be out.
A video clip posted to YouTube shows smoke coming from a silver jet on the tarmac and passengers could be seen jumping down the inflatable emergency slides.
Television footage showed debris strewn about the tarmac and pieces of the plane lying on the runway.
Among the passengers were 77 Koreans, 141 Chinese, 61 Americans and one Japanese.
The airline said it was working with relevant departments and agencies investigating the cause of the crash and that it would set up an accident response centre.
The twin-engine aircraft is one of the world's most popular long-distance planes, often used for flights of 12 hours or more.
Asiana is a South Korean airline, second in size to national carrier Korean Air. It has recently tried to expand its presence in the US, and joined the Star Alliance, which is anchored in the US by United Airlines.
Category: Deadly plane crash at San Francisco airport, Gossip news, World News
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