One dramatic photo tweeted by a survivor showed people streaming out of the jet following the crash landing. An inflatable slide was at the front entrance. Other emergency exits also appeared to have been used.
“I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I’m ok,” the passenger, David Eun, wrote on Twitter.
But another photo from above showed a more distressing scene, with most of the roof of the plane missing and the cabin seating area charred by fire. The aircraft’s wings were still attached.
“I saw some passengers bleeding and being loaded onto an ambulance,” another passenger, Chun Ki-Wan, told YTN TV in Seoul.
“Everything seemed to be normal before it crash landed.”
Stone said he feared for the flight crew seated in the back of the plane, which took off in Shanghai, stopped in Seoul and then headed to the United States.
“They were sitting in the back end and got hammered because we landed short. And then they all fell out and it was just the most terrible thing I’ve seen,” he said.
The airport was closed immediately after the incident but two runways later reopened. Some flights were diverted to Los Angeles.
Among those on board were 77 Koreans, 141 Chinese, 61 US citizens, and one Japanese national, Asiana said in a statement.
San Francisco General Hospital said it was treating 34 patients, five of them in critical condition.
Local media cited multiple witnesses who said the plane had approached the runway at an awkward angle, with several onlookers saying they then heard a loud bang.
“You heard a pop and you immediately saw a large, brief fireball that came from underneath the aircraft,” Anthony Castorani, who saw the crash from a nearby hotel, told CNN.
The accident site was covered in white foam used by firefighters, with at least six fire trucks at the scene.
The White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the incident, noting: “His thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost a loved one and all those affected by the crash.”
Asiana is based in Seoul. The twin-engine 777 aircraft is one of the world’s most popular long distance planes, often used for flights of 12 hours or more, from one continent to another.
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