>>. >> gregg: we begin a brand-new hour with fox news alert out of san francisco. word that at least two people have died, dozens more injured after an asiana a triple 7 commercial flight crashed while landing. i'm rick folbaum. >> i'm arthel nevil. there were more than 290 passengers on board along with 16 crew members. the san francisco fire department reports at least 61 people were injured. it's right on the san francisco bay. pieces of debris were spotted in the water and a long the runway now family

members waiting for loved ones are speaking out. >> i'll say. everything was going fine. as they were touching down my daughter said it seemed like they overshot the runway a little bit and came down hard on the front tire. what she said the tire collapsed and as it teetered back, back tire and it flipped over and caught fire. fire was right up in front. then it came to a rolling stop and they started evacuating everybody to make evaluations. >> claudia is live at san francisco international. >> rick: as we take a look at pictures. you can see the entire top of that airplane burned

away. we did get a picture sent to us from one of our ureport, fox news viewers who sent us a shot on ureport that showed that there was some time between the time the plane actually crash landed and the time the fire engulfed the top of the airplane that gave the first responders a few moments there to get people off of the plane and to safety. although, as we reported, a number of injuries, two fatalities at this point. there a plane on adjacent runway there but we have been told the entire airport has been shut down. >> some of those flights are being diverted to lax and people are calling to find out what was going on. it is remarkable but two people dead and 48 injuries with -- injured and 291 passengers on board. in the early pictures, it

was relatively calm. if you saw the passengers standing near the smoking plane after it crash landed didn't seem to be chaotic at all. which was extremely surprising and remarkable. we wanted to let you know we are getting incredible pictures from scene from passengers on board. david sent thus photo showing smoke rising from the fugitive. fuselage. >> i just crashed at sfo. most everyone seemed fine. surreal. david is also tweeting about his experience. it ahead h to be surreal. as know from flying so many times, rick, it's the takeoff and landing no matter how many times you fly you start to say that prayer at that very moment. in fact, this is the day when that landing went wrong.

it's ranked as number two and they transported cargo to dozen different destinations in the home country and also more than 60 other countries around the world. so it's an international airline. obviously it was flying internationally today. it operates a fleet of about 56 different jets including the boeing triple 7 which is the model airplane that was involved in this crash today. >> that is why there was a ten hour and 23 minute flight to san francisco. a little background on the san francisco international airport for you. this is big airport. those runways, they make a cross. you can see them not directly north, south and east west. the eastern end of that is the san francisco bay.

so that is the runway that was involved in the crash today. as we see the statistics that are coming up on the right-hand side of the screen, tenth busiest airport in the country, largest terminal in north america. it was at 28 "l" was the runway that the intended runway for this flight today that asiana flight today and that is where the accident took place. this is an airport that average averages about thousand flights per day, as we mentioned has a big international presence. >> it's one of the largest in north america. we were learning more about type of plane that was involved. its twin engine boeing 777 200, considered the world's most popular aircraft for long distance travel, often used in

flights of 12 hours and more and capable 246 to 300 passengers. today 291 passengers on board. 48 injuries in this crash landing at this point. two people died in that unfortunate accident there. they fly out of london, new york, denver, honolulu, tokyo, san francisco. those are some of the routing. fuel capacity which was interesting, they have 31,000 gallons of fuel on board. that was the smoke, the burning that you saw. there was fuel on the plane. so if you were wondering in fact the plane ran out of fuel that is not what happened. >> rick: let's bring in jon scott who is a co-anchor and he a licensed pilot. you don't fly big jets like

this but very experienced with lots of hours flying time. this is flight that originated in seoul, south korea that means the pilot had been in the air on the job foremany, many hours at this point. talk to us about what it is like when you are a pilot and you are about to land after a long flight over the ocean. >> obviously it's not something i have done. it could be that they had a crew of relief pilots on board for some of these real long haum flights. you will get two sets of pilots on board. one will take over. >> rick: i'm sorry to cut you off. there is a news briefing just beginning. stand by. we'll come back to you. to the news briefing about the crash today at san francisco international. >> the situation, the airport sfo is currently not accepting any arriving or departing traffic. we are also working on addressing that situation.

my best advice for passengers who are traveling today to sfo is to check with their airline to viaf the status of their flight. that is all the information i have at this time. we will hold another press conference at this press conference in one hour at 3:00 p.m. i would be happy to take any questions. my neighboring is doul yakel and public information at the airport. >> what do you know about what happened? there was an incident involved asiana flight 214. i don't have any more information. >> were there any fatalities or injuries? >> i don't have a counted of injured or inning injured. >> can you confirm how many people, flight and crew? >> we are working on number how many people were on board. >> you can just talk about. >> i don't know the status on scene. >> walk us through the process of what happened in

a situation like this. what you folks are doing and how you are dealing with this? >> first step is for our first responders to secure the scene. i want to thank the mutual aid responders who supported the airport in this effort. this is an effort that is still underway. we are still securing the scene and addressing the pages on the flight. again, i don't have exact numbers on that. flight was coming from seoul, south korea. i don't have any information on the nature of the incident. >> there were some reports that the plane may have rolled? >> i'm sorry, i can't confirm that. i'm sorry, i'm afraid i don't know that. >> can you talk a little bit, i know you don't have numbers on survivors but are there survivors? >> i don't have a count on the status. i do know that people were removed from the aircraft and transported. exact status, i don't have numbers. >> air traffic now and

where are things being diverted? >> i don't know where flights are being diverted but they have diverted. we are currently not operating arrivals or departures and we are working to address that. i'm sorry, i don't know that information. we're still working on an exact count. >> for those people waiting to see the loved ones, where this should they go right now? >> asiana airlines are working out a process, if we get an 800 number we will give that to you. >> people are coming to pick somebody up, what are you telling them to do? >> our best advice right now is to check with their airline for the status of their flight given that flights may have diverted to other locations. >> but if somebody was on that particular flight, what are they telling them to do? >> asiana is establishing a process for that. i'm sorry i don't have

those details for you at this time. folks we're going on wrap it up. we're going to meet back at 3:00 for more information. >> rick: that was doug yakel with the san francisco international airport. not a lot of information. he did have some news that the airport has been shut down. some questions as far as what people should do if they are going to pick up loved ones who were flying into san francisco international. not necessarily on this flight but, of course, on some of the other commercial flights that would be flying in. he said he didn't know. check with the carriers is going to cause a problem for other air travelers and their loved ones. i'm sure it's small compared to the scott today. jon scott is still with us on the phone. jon, are you there? >> still with you. >> rick: as we take a look

at pictures. it's unbelievable to see the top of an airplane like this. the gentleman we heard from, there was a report that the plane had flipped at one point. we don't. as you take a look at the airplane and wings are intact. is there a way that this plane could have flipped in some way and still be in the shape that it is in right now? >> i really don't think so. i think what you are experiencing is the misinterpretation of survivor reports. i think what happened to this plane if you look at the wide shot, it is pointing nearly 180 degrees from the direction it was intended to land. so it spun around and i think people are interpreting spun around as rolling over or misinterpreting spun around. the plane i think -- probably because the way the landing gear snapped

off. we have seen pictures of the landing gear lying on the runway. probably landing gear on one side that was helping to support it and it was belly sliding on the other side. it spun around, but it didn't flip over. i think the wing, one of the wings would have snapped off if it had rolled over. >> i think your assessment is spot on. i do believe in other aviation expert, instead of flipping over or cartwheeling, he said it spun around like a spinning top. >> right. and the carted wheeling of an aircraft is incredibly chaotic. that is what happened to the dc-10, it lost hydraulics and crashed landed in an iowa cornfield. it ended up cartwheeling

and loss of life in that situation was tremendous. this was a badly controlled belly landing. that is part of the reason that so many people were able to walk away. when you look at the fuselage and aircraft grade aluminum, it has other metals to make it increase the strength that is aircraft aluminum, quarter of an inch thinking thick. fire was hot enough to melt that aluminum, that was quite an intense fire. obviously most of the people were off of the plane before it consumed the skin of this thing. it was an intense fire. >> rick: we have a picture of the fuselage prior to the top of it being burned away. it gives you a sense obviously we don't know how much time but the fact there was time for the

first responders to get people off the plane and to safety before the fire engulfed the top of the airplane. i'm interested in the landing of a plane like this. i know these planes are very sophisticated and lot of computer equipment. sometimes the computers take over. other times the pilots are in direct control. in a landing type situation who would have been flying the plane? the computers or pilot? >> that is up to pilot if it is severely foggy weather, there are excellent landing systems on these airplanes. i don't know myself how to run them. i read a lot about aviation and i know there are auto landing capabilities on these planes that will basically take and planted them on the runway in severe runway. generally pilots like to land by hand. they like the experience. whether it was a captain or

the first officer who was landing this plane, i would guess they were doing it by hand and somehow got too low. aviation, flying a plane like this it has to have adequate airflow over the wings. if for some reason the airflow was not sufficient, maybe because the engines lost a little power momentarily, maybe the pilot didn't give it enough fuel or maybe they hit an air pocket or microburst that took away the airflow. that plane can drop like a rock if it doesn't have airflow over the wings. if they got a tail wind as they are approaching the runway, that plane all of a sudden doesn't have lift. you need airflow over the wings to keep it in the air. >> rick: that could have been something that surprised the pilots airflow situation they would not have known about

it? >> there has been a lot of research done ever since a delta plane crashed at the dallas airport in a thunderstorm situation. that is what led to the development of so much research about microbursts which are very fast and powerful gusts of wind that come out of a thunderstorm. what they learned in that particular crash, the wind changes directions very quickly in a microburst where a pilot might be flying into a 40 mile-an-hour headwind, you want the wind coming at the plane and flowing over the wings and lifting it. all of a sudden in a microburst you can go are from a 40 knot headwind to a tail wind. you have jos lost 8 knots of wind speed. 89 knot loss of wind speed means essentially you just don't have the airflow over the wings to keep it in the air.

that is what led to a delta crash in dallas that led to a whole bunch of safety changes and information, radar changes to help avoid wind shear. what caused this one to come in so low, i don't know, but it isn't necessarily pilot error. there may have been a pocket wind or tail wind that hit this plane that wouldn't allow it to stay in the air. >> rick: jon scott being a great news man and co-anchor of what is happening now, he a licensed pilot. thanks so much for your time. >> we wanted to bring in robert mark is a commercial pilot. he has flown into this airport. thank you for being here. you just heard jon scott's assessment of what could have happened. he mentioned air pockets and what could happen in

less than perfect weather conditions. according to the weather report at the time of the landing, 11:26 this morning, san francisco time it was a perfect day, perfect weather conditions. on your assessment, with a might have gone wrong here? >> from what we have seen so far on the videos that i've been watching from your station, or your network, it looks from the debris field as they are looking for the approach end of the runway toward where the aircraft actually stopped, it looks like the debris starts right at the breakwater there. there is a dike right there to keep the water from coming up on the runway that the waves get too high. it looks like he hit the dike first. that is why pieces are scattered all over the

ground area and even before you get to the approach end of the runway. if that is the case, that would have made the aircraft hit down pretty hard which may have been reason the tail snapped off. he didn't fly very far, maybe 1500 feet it looks like from what i can see. i'm estimating that from the video i can see. it looks like he landed short of the runway. >> in a situation like that, what could possibly cause that to happen. usually flying into an airport like this, rick had asked jon scott who is controlling the airline at this point. do you land by hand? is it on autopilot typically? >> at that point in time, in the last few seconds before the airplane touches down. pilots would have been flying by hand. they would have taken it off the autopilot if it was connected.

probably about 200 to 300 feet in the air and whichever pilot is flying that approach would have used the control, manipulated the control wheels by itself. so again, to land short, that means there wasn't enough power from the engine to carry the airplane to where it should have been, it should have been touching down way further from where it did, probably many thousand feet. it was very low where it hit the diki. why? was the crew digs tracked for some reason -- distracted for some reason or was there some other issue going on with the airplane that maybe the engines decided the last second to stop putting out full power. i mean, that did happen to another triple 7 that crashed in heathrow a few years ago. they managed to make it

down to the end of the runway and everybody got out. again, we know that it looks like, again, probably landed short. we just don't know why. >> arthel: and you mentioned that one of engines may have failed or both? >> we don't know. we don't know. all we know at that point with the landing gear and flaps down for landing you have to have the engines churning pretty quickly to produce enough power to overcome all that drag on landing. that is very normal. in the last few seconds if something happens if the engines stop producing enough power, the airplane is going to fall like a brick. >> arthel: and emergency slides had been deployed, given your experience, what does that indicate. pilot had enough time to push the button to put the emergency slides out or what? >> let me tell you. i did have a chance to listen to the audio of the

pilot talking to the tower, to the san francisco tower. when he made the last communication which was just a few seconds before he touched down, there didn't seem to be anything going on at all. there didn't seem to be any concern on the pilot's voice. they were actually talking to them after the airplane hit on the ground. they were still waiting for the emergency crews to show up. obviously their voices were different but they were still talking at that point. in terms -- ask me that last question. >> arthel: i have another question. you were just saying the pilots were talking to the control tower upon approach. i told you that the emergency slides were deployed. i was asking if that gives you any indication in the timing of that. how much time the pilot had to react. also, there were other planes there waiting to take off. again indicating that whatever happened was pretty much at the last

minute. there weren't emergency crews waiting for them for the plane that actually crashed. >> that is good point you made. for most people that fly in the back of airliners, that last few seconds, all you are thinking about is waiting for the wheels to touchdown and they start to brake the airplane to slow it down and taxi to the gate. you are just about finished with the airline flight at that point. they would have had only a few seconds from the point that airplane first hit the ground until it slid to a stop for everyone to instantly jump into action. the pilots don't put the slides down. the flight attendants when they pull the doors open. so even the flight attendants were probably -- unless there was something going on -- if there was

nothing going on, the flight attendants, very much like a fireman rea little go to a bell in the station. they ran to those doors. they knew which doors open and got a lot of people out. we still don't know how many people have been lost in this. but the fire was really intense. >> arthel: robert mark, thank you for your time. a commercial pilot has flown into san francisco international in the past. >> rick: we are waiting for a 5:30 eastern time news conference from national transportation safety board. they have sent a go team to san francisco. we are under five minutes from that. in the meantime, san francisco fire department gave a news briefing just a couple minutes ago. we want to let you hear that. >> okay. we're going to start with some preliminary information. i would stress we would do ongoing media briefing but

let me begin confirming some of the basic facts of the incident. that about 11:27 this morning, an incident occurred on asiana airlines flight 214. this is a boeing triple 7 aircraft coming from seoul. we want to thank you are police and fire, our first responders, mutual aid responding so quickly. we are still on the scene addressing the incident. we do not have numbers in terms of the passenger count at this time. we don't have any information at this time as to the status of those passengers. so we're continuing to work this situation. the sfo is not accepting any arriving or departing traffic. we are addressing that situation. my best advice for passengers who are traveling today to sfo is to check with the airline to vary status of their flight. this is all the information

i have at this time. we will hold another press conference at 3:00 p.m. >> my name is doug yakel i'm the public information officer at the airport. >> what do you know so far about what happened? >> all we know there was an incident involved asiana flight 214 as it came in san francisco. i don't have that information. >> fatalities and injuries? >> i don't have a count of injured, non-injured. >> can you confirm how many people were on flight, passengers and crew? >> we're still working on firm number. i don't have that information. >> can you just talk about -- >> i don't know the status on the scene, no. >> walk us through the process of what happened in a situation like this. what you folks are doing and how you are dealing with this? >> the first step is for our first responders to secure the scene. i want to thank the mutual

aid responders who supported the airport in this effort. this is an effort that is still underway. we are still securing the scene and addressing the passengers on the flight. again, i don't have exact numbers on the count. flight was coming from seoul, south korea. i don't have any information on the nature of the incident. >> there were some reports that plane may have lold? >> i'm sorry, i can't confirm that. i don't know the status of that. i'm sorry i'm afraid i don't know that. >> i know you don't have numbers on survivors. can you say there are survivors? >> i do know that people were removed from the aircraft and transported. status of injured or non-injured i can't talk to numbers. >> i don't know where flights are being diverted to but they have diverted and we are currently not operating any rivals arrives or departures and

we are working to address that. i'm sorry i don't know that information. we are still working on an exact count. >> for those people waiting to see their loved ones off the plane, where should they go now? >> asiana airlines is working out a process. if we get an 800 number we will advertise that, as well. >> what are you doing, people are coming to pick somebody up, what are you telling them to do? >> best advice is to check with airlines for the status of their flight given that flights may have diverted to other locations. >> but if someone was on flight and looking for their loved ones, are the airlines telling them to do? >> asiana is establishing a process for that. i'm sorry i don't have the details for you at this time. folks, we're going wrap it up. we'll meet it back here 3:00 for more information.

>> rick: a lot of details that we don't know about. the gentleman that we heard from doesn't know about and conflicting reports on the number of fatalities and casualties. we wanted to try to be a little non-specific we don't know. some reports have won one person being killed. others have two people dying and as many as 61 people injured. on the right side of screen is a shot of reagan national airport down in washington, d.c. area. the ntsb is set to hold a briefing from that location in just a couple of minutes. >> n.t.s.b. will be running the investigation and it will be critical to find out exactly what happened to the boeing 777 that went down on landing at san francisco international

airport today. >> arthel: was coming in from seoul. a ten hour 23 minute flight there. we are reporting specifics in numbers. very early in the reporting here. they don't know. we're waiting to find out what is happening now. we can tell you about san francisco airport. as you probably know from flying out of there, approximately 13 miles south of the city. it covers some five square miles. it is the tenth busiest airport in the u.s. and 25th busiest in the world handling over a half million passengers each week. the airport itself averages over 1,000 flights per day. it is the international terminal. it's also the largest terminal in north america. we are looking at pictures of the schematic of the airport and on the left you are looking at the crash scene. that is the flight 214

which was supposed to land safely at runway 28 "l". something went wrong at the very final moments of the landing according to robert mark who we just spoke to. a commercial pilot who has flown into sfo himself. we also had our own jon scott and licensed pilot calling about who or what, if the computer would be in control at that point in the landing or if in fact the pilots are in control. both are saying at that point, it's usually the pilot that is landed by hand. according to weather reports, the weather conditions there were pretty perfect. >> rick: it is on the bay. san francisco is known for a lot of wind and that could have very well played a role. it's too early to say. zwron was talking about a phenomena called

microbursts where sudden airflow changing cause a lot of problems for a pilot who is trying to land at san francisco international or any other airport for that matter. you are talking about 28 "l" that is one of the runways that jets out into the bay. it hid the most easterly direction as we took a look a map of the different runways. they make a cross heading not directly north, south, east or west, but sort of that direction, but it heads off into the bay to the east. if you are just joining our coverage, we're about half past the hour. we realize on a holiday weekend, a lot of you are hopefully out and about and enjoying yourselves not tuned into what is going on in the world every second of the day. there has been a plane crash at san francisco international airport. that area on the left-hand

side of the screen is where the tail used to be on this asiana boeing 777 that was landing. those holes in the top of the fuselage there, holes are the result of intense flames and fire. that fire started after the plane landed and after everyone was taken off the plane. at least most people had been taken off the plane but there are a number of injuries. some of them burn related. just so you know it's not as though the plane blew up in the air and then just dropped there. it was after the landing that the fire broke out. first responders able to get to the scene, get everybody off the plane and as we've been telling you, conflicting reports, one possibly two dead. as many as 60 people injured as we take a look at the immediate aftermath of smoke rising. these are shots obviously from right after the plane

landed and had all the problems. >> arthel: what is remarkable, if you had 291 passengers on board, 16 crew members, remarkable that the fatality count, we're not confirming exactly -- it's extremely low. we don't want anyone to perish but considering what could have happened, in, indeed, remarkable. if you have flown from other continents you know you have been on a twin engine 777. it's one of the most popular aircraft chosen for long distance travel. flights up to 12 hours or more or traveling from one continent to another. it is capable of 246 to 300 passengers. close to capacity would w some 291 pages on board, keeping in mind this is holiday weekend.

it is a holiday weekend so you've got a lot of people traveling to and from. we're going to get more now on the triple 7 and the airlines. we're going going to dominic live in los angeles. >> reporter: background on the triple 7 here. it been serving since 18 years and workhorse of the sky. particularly because of the range, it's used to really long riots around the world. long hall from l.a. to dubai, 17 hours. that is very popular with a variety of airlines. it's known for the seating configuration. you get three and five and then three again. it's how a lot of airlines use it that is why you can get 451 passengers on it. it has twin turbo engines. one of those on the wreckage of the flight.

it's completely designed by computer and it was boeing's first fly by wire and that means it's all electronic instrumentation in the cockpit. it does have a history of fires. in july 2011, i believe it was a triple 777 er, there was a fire in the cockpit when it was parked at cairo international airport. that sustained heated and smoke damage. it was investigators focused on possible electronic fault with a supply hose in the oxygen system. what is interesting here. in san francisco today is that the fire appears to be at the front of the aircraft. as for the damage on the top side of the aircraft, not actually above the cockpit is across the business and first class section. let's take about the owner -- 12 of those in the

fleet and airline does have a low record of incidents. the latest was in july 2011. and asiana flight 991 for shanghai. that was taking off from south korea and was operating a boel 777-400. it crashed and two of the crew were killed. the worst loss of life was 66 passengers and two crew died back in july 1993 when one of the boeing 777-500's crashed. it was the southwestern tip of the korean peninsula, there has been a small handful for the airline what is also up to today a particular aircraft that

has a good safety record around the world. >> arthel: thank you very much. we want to let you know we are waiting for a press conference at reagan national airport. n.t.s.b. is going to brief us on information they have at this juncture on the crash landing at san francisco's international asiana's flight 214. ten hours and 23 minute flight from seoul, south korea to san francisco. at as dominic, it's, indeed, the long range plane that is a workhorse of those long range flights scheduled to land at 11:26 this morning in san francisco. the airlines is one of two majorer south korean airlines. you have korean air is most

popular. >> rick: on the right-hand side screen, a bank of microphones that is what we expect to hear from the n.t.s.b. they are playing a major role in the investigation into this crash. as we've been on the air and listening to do any mick's reported can i got -- dominic's reporting. he was telling me more about designation of the runways from john scott. they were attempting to land on 28 "l", 28 according to john that the runway is heading 280 degrees, meaning 10 degrees north of due west. pilot was trying to land east to west. the winds would have been coming out of the west. so the winds could have been an issue. jon also talked about this phenomenon called microbursts which is something that is great interest and concern to those in the aviation

industry. it has been thought to be the caution or at least played a role in the number of airline incidents over the years. microbursts are associated with thunderstorms which they did not apparently have this morning. the weather reports out of the san francisco pretty good, clear, but an example what could possibly happen when there is a sudden change in wind direction. wings need airflow in order to do their job. the microbursts played a role in this, that would have been an issue for the pilot trying to land that plane. we heard speculation that he came up short of the runway. again, we really don't have enough information to say definitively at all what the cause of this was. you can see on the left of the runway, then you see smack in the middle of two strips where the plane ended up. we expect or we suspect rather that it ended up there with quite a bit of

turn leants on the ground -- turbulence on the ground and included the entire tail basically being shorn off of that fuselage. >> arthel: some 291 passengers on board. emergency slides had been deployed. we were talking to a commercial pilot, robert mark earlier. he had flown into san francisco airport. at that point in the landing pilot more than likely was in control of that plane. a report that all electronic instruments in the cockpit on the boeing 777. again we want to let you know, if you are tuning in asiana flight 214 scheduled to land at san francisco 11:26 local time.

a 10 hour 23 minute flight crash landing. no flights into the san francisco and no flights flying out of that airport. some of the flights have been diverted. we heard some reports some of the planes are going los angeles. however, early information from doug yakel, public information officer at san francisco international airport, limited information. they were going to check back in with us in about another 15 minutes as we await the press conference. they are trying to gather information. they are getting bombarded from questions from reporters trying to figure out what is happening but from loved ones who were waiting for their family or relatives or friends to land there at san francisco. you can imagine, it's got to be creating a snarl this air traffic across the country. >> rick: a lot of those planes that intended to

land at sfo are going to have find some big airports to land at. some of the more regional airports in the area might not be large enough to accommodate some of the big commercial jets that are used to landing at an international airport like san francisco. whenever there is an airplane crash, especially one involving a commercial jetliner, there are a lot of concerns about air safety. it's always important i think to put into context exactly how safe it is to fly commercially in this country. our research department, we call the brain room compiling information about airplane safety. couple facts. things to keep in mind. as we take a look at horrific scenes out of san francisco. it's important to keep these facts in mind. flying remains one of

safety forms of transportation. there are two deaths worldwide for every 100 million passengers on commercial flights. two deaths for every one hundred million around the world. that is according the associated press. it did an analysis of accident data and just a decade ago, passengers were ten times as likely to die when flying on an american plane. risk of death was greater during the start of the jet age with just under 1700 people dying, 133 for every 100 million passengers between 1962 and 1971. those figures do not include deaths related to any act of terrorism. you can see the safety improving dramatically over the years. over the last 30-40 years and again i think it's worth repeating the number, two deaths for every hundred million passengers.

that is not bad. you feel for the people involved in today's accident in san francisco. it's important to keep it in context. >> arthel: absolutely. asiana airlines is number two airlines in south korea, right behind korean airlines, very safe record overall. that flight that the plane was a twin engine boeing 777 which is by far the most popular aircraft chosen for those long distance travel often used for those flights up to 12 hours or more from one continent to the other. capable of carrying large numbers. passengers, 246 to 300 passengers, able to fit into one of those planes. >> rick: we have a statement from boeing. maker of the triple 7 and this is very popular airplane model.

boeing sells these planes all over the world from turkey to china. of course, south korea and here in the united states. boeing's spokesperson releasing this statement that boeing extends the concern for the safety for those on board. boeing is prepared to on provide technical assistance to the ntsb as it investigates the accident. at we take a look at aerial pictures above the runway at san francisco international airport where it's calm there now. everyone is off of the plane. we are waiting for -- we have not been confirmed but varying reports of either one or two people having lost their lives on this plane. perhaps anywhere from 20-60 people injured. we want to nail down those numbers before we tell you definitively what we've got for you. >> arthel: hopefully we

will be able to get answers from the n.t.s.b. as we are waiting for them to give us a briefing of what happened as far as they know at this point. they are going to be bringing us news briefing from reagan national airport. we want to let you know at the time of the crash in san francisco, there were no thunderstorms in the area. the skies were clear. light winds which according to some -- robert mark who has flown in san francisco airport, winds can be a problem. it sits right on bay, light winds at the time of the crash. visibility was excellent. ten miles. temperatures mid-60s. as jon scott explained to us, microbursts are typically, they typically happen with thunderstorms in the area but there were no thunderstorms in the area at the time. >> we are waited fog for

some information not only from the n.t.s.b. but faa is reacting. federal aviation administration reacting to the crash. elizabeth prann has been monitoring reaction from the faa and joins us from washington. >> reporter: we will break in when we hear from national transportation safety board. they are not far from us and we also know they have an investigation team en route no san francisco to probe the crash and look at the scene. that being said like i mentioned we are hearing from the national transportation safety board laura brown. she writes the flight that crashed was a asiana flight 214 scheduled to arrive at 11:26 from seoul. the crash crashed upon landing on run 28 left and investigators are heading to the scene. faa won't confirm the

number of passengers on board, we are hearing from local reports that there were 291 passengers on that flight. like i mentioned the plane crashed on run 28 left which you are looking at now. that runway is closed obviously. the runway parallel is closed. the runway purpose are also closed and airport is not accepting any incoming air traffic. keep in mind. aviation safety network reports that 2012 was one of safety years since 1945. as far as the number of aviation accidents are concerned. agency reported a total of 23 fatal airline accidents resulting in 475 fatalities but both figures are much lower than the ten-year average of 34 accidents and 773 fatalities with the ten-year average. i know that we've been hearing about the history of asiana airlines, one of

south korea's two major carriers. there has been a handful. half a dozen crashes since the airline was founded back in 1988. the first was in july of 1993, one of two most recent -- i correct myself -- a domestic passenger jet that slammed into a hill in south korea. in that incident, 68 passengers were killed in that crash. weather was a huge factor. that was a boeing 737, not as large as triple 7. if you fast forward to july 2011, two fatalities when one of their passenger flights, a cargo plane crashed into the waters off the coast of southern korea. and triple 7 crash upon landing in the san francisco airport. this boeing aircraft is reserved for very long range plane trips, often carrying passengers on flights much longer than 12

hours. i know you've been talking about the weather. it seems very clear in san francisco. some clouds in the sky around the time of the crash but temperatures around 65 degrees. for those who have flown in and out of airport, no reports of heavy fog or big gusts of wind. we're waiting more information from the n.t.s.b. they are holding a press conference and they had it scheduled for 5:30 eastern time. we will continue to monitor that. we also will be hearing from the faa before the night is over. >> rick: you can understand officials wanting to get as much information as they can before they step in front of microphones and try to answer questions from reporters. that could be holdup as far as the n.t.s.b. is concerned. we will take you to the press conference when that begins. we'll take you back to the san francisco airport where a press conference is slated to begin at the top of the hour.

about six or seven minutes from now. we are waiting for two separate press conferences. we've got it covered to you. we'll take both live right here on fox. >> arthel: we wanted to talk to an eyewitness, she was traveling from fresno to san francisco and her plane had just landed. i understand you witnessed the crash? >> yeah, i saw the plane as it was hitting the runway. >> arthel: so your plane had already landed. you are the runway, toogdz or waiting? >> we had -- taxiing. >> we had landed parallel where this plane had come in. we were on our way down. our plane tilted to the left really quickly. it's a small plane. its puddle jumper from fresno. it landed pretty quickly and pilot slammed on the brakes. we took a sharp left,

perpendicular so we saw it when it hit the runway. >> arthel: margaret, tell me what you saw? >> i saw the back end hit first, it hit so hard, it looked to me like it bounced then i an engine fly off to the left. it landed in the center island. it exploded and erupted into flames really quickly. plane turned horizontally toward us and went into the dirt it trasmd a pretty long ways. i was scared it was going hit our plane. it was probably about quarter of a mile from our plane. >> arthel: quarter of a mile from your plane and there you sit on another plane, you had just landed from fresno. tell me what was going on inside your plane? how was everybody reacting? >> everyone -- there were a

couple of screams. but only half of us could see it. it was small plane, ten windows. >> arthel: do you du have a good view? >> yeah, i was only one on that side. >> arthel: did your pilot come on and make an announcement? >> nope. >> arthel: so they didn't know, go ahead? >> we never heard from the pilot. >> arthel: never heard from the pilot. >> it was confusing time. he had known what had happened because he had a front view that is why he stopped abruptly but none of us realized. >> arthel: once you saw the plane crash, it land there had you, you said you noticed one of the engines had fallen off. what else did you see? did you see the passengers who on the flight, did you see them running off?

>> plane -- when it landed i saw smoke coming from the center of the plane maybe two minutes after the smoke and dust cleared. we saw the emergency slides pop out in the front but i never say anyone come down it. then i erupted in pretty heavily flames. there was a bunch of fire trucks and ambulances. they started spraying with water. one of people in back saw people. >> arthel: you told me the pilot didn't make any announcements. how long was it the pilot was able to taxi the plane that you were on from fresno, how long was it to be able to move the plane away? >> it was close to an hour. it was least 50 minutes from the time we saw.

yeah, it was good. >> arthel: and you sat there for -- margaret, thank you very much for joining us and giving your eyewitness account. we wanted to go to reagan national airport where a presser has begun. i think we'll be hearing from the chairman. >> we have a number of investigators who are launching with us from here headquarters. they are being led by investigator in charge bill english. we have number of experts that will be leading specific teams. those teams will be focused on operations, human performance, survival factors, the airport, airport operations and they the will be focusing on the aircraft and structures and

the power plants. we are going to be supported by a number of team members here in washington, d.c. they are in the process of collecting information on air traffic control operations, on weather and on maintenance issues. they will be able to gather information while the rest of our team is en route to provide us with that information when they land so we can hit the ground running. we have three investigators who are based on the west coast. they are deploying right now to the accident scene to stake it down in advance of our team's arrival from washington. they are based in the l.a. area and should arrive in san francisco in the next couple of hours. i have spoken to administrator of the faa and getting very good cooperation from federal aviation administration, from boeing and other participants.

we are working with our counterparts with koreans, their investigation board and we will invite them to serve as a participant in our investigation. we are leaving now. we should arrive in san francisco in just a few hours and we go l get to work when we arrive. happy to take any questions. >> at this point, what do you think happened? >> question is, what do we think happened. obviously, we have lot have work to do. as you know when our teams arrive on scene, they work to collect information. we will look at the aircraft to find the flight data recorders were functioning and looking to get information from them as well as document the accident scene. it's too early for us to tell. we haven't left washington yet. once we arrive we will be able to provide additional information. >> any chance of pilot error? >> any other questions?

>> the question is, is there a relatively new aircraft? >> this is boeing triple 7. i mentioned that boeing will be one of parties to our investigation and we work very closely with entities who have expertise to bring that to the investigation. triple 7 has been around for a while. carrying several hundred passengers and we will be looking at everything when we get there. we have not determined what the focus of the investigation is yet. we have to get on the scene to begin to collect the factual information to do the documentation and to draw on our experts that will be putting information together en route. one more question. >> is there any that this is pilot error. as i said, we haven't left washington yet. we will be looking at everything, everything is on the table at this point. we have to gather the facts before we reach any conclusions.