Asiana Flight 214 from Seoul
crashed while landing at San Francisco Airport today. Early reports suggest the plane was unstable as it touched down, which led to the
tail of the plane breaking off. There are no official casualty reports yet, but
passengers were seen walking off the plane. Preliminary estimates say
one or two dead and 75 being transported to area hospitals. (Others are reporting
two dead and several dozen injured.) Eyewitness report: "You heard a pop and you immediately saw a large, brief fireball that came out from underneath the aircraft," Anthony Castorani said on CNN. "At that moment, you could see that that aircraft was again starting to lift and it began to cartwheel [
Ed: he likely means spinning horizontally, like a top]. The wing broke off on the left hand side. You could see the tail immediately fly off of the aircraft. As the aircraft cartwheeled, it then landed down and the other wing had broken." The media has estimated about 290 people were on board the plane.
The top of the cabin was aflame at one point, but it's not known yet whether that affected the passengers. "Federal sources told NBC News that
there was no indication of terrorism." Some images from the news make it look like the plane may have tried to touch down too early,
hitting the seawall just before the runway.