U.S.

A Boeing 777 Crash Landed in San Francisco

According to multiple on-the-ground reports, a Boeing 777 operated by Asiana Airlines crashed during landing at San Francisco International airport Saturday afternoon.

By Connor Simpson
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Update, 9:13 p.m.: Police officials gave a short briefing to reporters about an hour ago wherein they ruled out terrorism and said they were still investigating what caused the crash. The latest numbers have two people dead, 181 people taken to the hospital, and one still unaccounted for.

Update, 5:30 p.m.: KCBS's Doug Sovern confirms the injury numbers, straight from the San Francisco Fire Department: two people are dead and 61 are injured. San Francisco General Hospital reports 10 people are seeking treatment for critical injuries there.

Update, 5:00 p.m.: Well, so much for those fuzzy "everyone is alright" feelings: KTVU is now reporting two people are dead and 61 injured after the crash. This eerily calm audio recording of the plane's interaction with the tower at San Francisco International also surfaced:

Update, 4:19 p.m.: The flight was supposed to have some high level tech executives on board. along with Samsung executive David Eun, Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg and her team were going to fly on Asiana 214. They switched to United so they could use their miles.

Update, 4:12 p.m.: According to two LA Times reporters and one Fox reporter, there were no fatalities among the 291 passengers and 12 crew. (That's an updated number, for the record.) One person was critically injured and airlifted to a local hospital but, for the most part, everyone seems OK. We'll have updated injury reports when the numbers are confirmed.

All flights out of San Francisco International have been delayed for now. The airport is on lockdown until further notice.

Update, 3:57 p.m.: CBS's San Francisco affiliate KPIX reports there were 291 people on board the flight, including passengers and crew. There are unconfirmed reports that at least one person has been airlifted to a local hospital because of the crash, but otherwise there's still no word on injuries yet. Emergency crews are reportedly working in the San Francisco bay, too.

The circumstances surrounding the crash are already unusual. An official told The New York Times' Ravi Somaiya that the plane was not making an emergency landing. Passengers inside the flight have reported all was normal until they heard a loud bang. Suddenly there was a lot of smoke and debris coming from the back of the plane. And conditions in San Francisco were perfect today, potentially ruling out any sort of weather interference.

Via The Atlantic Wire's Phillip Bump, this KTVU live shot shows the plane's tail in three pieces:

Update, 3:35 p.m.: This San Francisco resident uploaded this wide shot from his house:

Plane crash at #SFO. View from my house. This looks bad! pic.twitter.com/toK6QatycE

— Marc Escuro (@mgescuro) July 6, 2013

And KTVU has this horrific looking aerial shot of the plane after the crash. The top of the plane is charred black as emergency crews are still fighting to put out fires. You can clearly see the tail of the plane is detached and that the plane landed on its belly (contradicting some other reports):

Aerial shot from KTVU: pic.twitter.com/15B8nkJDtQ

— Erik Malinowski (@erikmal) July 6, 2013

Still no word on injuries yet.

Original: According to multiple on-the-ground reports, a Boeing 777 operated by Asiana Airlines crashed during landing at San Francisco International airport Saturday afternoon. The FAA confirmed a crash occurred without naming the flight or the number of injuries, but Asiana flight 214 from Seoul is thought to be the plane that crashed. According to Emergency in San Francisco, 44 people have already been rescued. According to a KTVU witness report, the plane was just about to land when the tail of the plane fell off. One witness uploaded a picture of the plane immediately after being rescued:

Reports started coming in on social media almost immediately as bystanders waiting for other flights reported what they saw:

This same witness actually got a picture of the crash while it was happening:

There are no injuries reported yet but passengers are reportedly being evacuated:

This video shows plumes of heavy black smoke coming from the plane after it crashed:

This story is still developing and we'll be updating this post as we learn more.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.