Breaking News: two dead in San Francisco airport jet crash (see photos)

A Boeing 777 plane carrying 291 crash landed at San Francisco airport this afternoon reportedly killing at least two passengers and injuring 61.

The tail of the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 flight from South Korea was ripped off in the tragic accident around 11.30am PDT and a huge blaze tore through the plane which onlookers described as spinning around on impact.


Horrific photographs of the damage emerged moments after the crash as well as cellphone videos of the plane as it spun out of control.

At least two of those on-board were killed with a further 61 injured, local broadcaster KTVU.COM reported.
A San Francisco General Hospital official told the Associated Press that at least 10 people were in a critical condition including two children and eight adults.

A class of vacationing school children were on board while one passenger relayed what happened to a relative via a plane phone, according to CBS San Francisco.

16 members of staff were on board.

Several other passengers managed to escape unscathed and could be seen fleeing down emergency inflatable slides.
A coastguard team was also dispatched to search the nearby water.

A huge smoke cloud could be seen for miles from the site of San Francisco International and tourists in the airport terminal and on waiting flights could only look on in horror as the plane spun across the runway on its belly.

Onlookers said much of the tail came off in the crash while others reported seeing the plane's fuselage spinning around as it journeyed across the concourse.

The entire ceiling of the plane was destroyed in the blaze that immediately followed.

Emergency workers rushed to its aid and doused it with white foam to try and control the flames. They were able to help those who were miraculously able to escape the wreckage and were seen fleeing down emergency slides.

According to an excerpt of the radio recorded at the airport tower the plane was cleared to lane at 18.21, just over a minute later the flight called in and appears to have called for emergency assistance.

Witnesses spoke of their horror.

'The plane started coming in at an odd angle, there was a huge bang and you could see the cloud of huge black smoke,' Kate Belding, told the broadcaster.

One witness told CNN that there didn't seem to be any preparations for a crash landing before the plane came in suggesting it was an issue that only emerged on landing.

The weather conditions were also described as ideal for San Francisco airport which can often be blighted with fog and poor visibility.

Luckily no other standing planes were caught in the accident despite dozens waiting to take off from the major airport.

The plane departed Incheon airport near South Korea's capital around 10 hours ago and was due to land at 9.45am on the West Coast.

All flights in and out of San Francisco were temporarily cancelled with several being diverted to nearby Oakland International. At 2.30pm PDT the airport said it was looking to open two runways to allow limited arrivals and departures.
Airport officials urged travelers to check their flight status online.

Face CEO Sheryl Sandberg was supposed to be on the flight but decided to change her flight last minute so she could use air miles on a United flight instead, according to her post on Facebook.

'Taking a minute to be thankful and explain what happened. My family, colleagues Debbie Frost, Charlton Gholson and Kelly Hoffman and I were originally going to take the Asiana flight that just crash-landed. We switched to United so we could use miles for my family's tickets. Our flight was scheduled to come in at the same time, but we were early and landed about 20 minutes before the crash.'