An Asiana Airlines Inc jet crashed while landing in Francisco on Saturday, killing two people and forcing passengers to escape down emergency slides before a fire swept through the plane. Flight 214's tail hit the ground and broke off, sending the Boeing Co 777 spinning out of control, witnesses said.
South Korea's transport ministry said on Sunday that the jet carried 307 people from Seoul, and the San Francisco fire department said 181 were taken to hospitals. It was Seoul-based Asiana's first crash since a Boeing 747 freighter went down at sea in July 2011.
"We are very lucky that we have so many survivors," Mayor Ed Lee said at a briefing late on Saturday at San Francisco International Airport. "This could have been much worse."
