this is a fox news alert asiana airlines flight 214 with 307 people on board crashes as it attempts to land. two confirmed dead, 49 seriously injured. hello welcome to our special coverage of the crash in san francisco. >> thanks for joining us. claudia cowan has been covering this story live from san francisco international airport with the latest from there. claudia? >> rick and marianne, good evening. condolences pouring in from the governor to the white house. officials are expressing their sympathyes to families of those passengers and crew members on board asiana flight 214 and deep gratitude to 225

first responders on scene within minutes and helped ensure the survival of 305 people. yes, two people lost their lives here today. but everyone agrees especially after watching some of the video coming in, that this could have been a lot worse. now, first team of investigators from the ntsb due to arrive here around midnight and will spend next few days out of runway 28 l that begins right at the waters edge that. is where this plane was attempting to land right around 11:30 this afternoon, when it crashed, once, possibly twice with a thud, lost the tail and skidded down the runway most of the fuselage was ripped or burned away. amazingly everyone escaped we're told two soul who's perished were found outside of the plane. now, the passengers included 141 chinese, 77 south koreans

and 61 u.s. citizens. the nationality and gender of the two who died and those now critically injured are unknown. but we know 182 people are being treated in nine bay area hospitals a dozen injuries said to be very critical. the number does include several children. now, federal agents have secured the crash site. they have ruled out terrorism as a cause of the plane crash. but we are getting conflicting accounts we know that the pilot did not radio in a distress or s.o.s.call and witness reports have said that the plane appeared to be arriving a little lopsided or off kilter at a strange angle as it appeared to land. one flight tracking service studying last several minutes of the flight as this plane was landing said it appeared that it was coming down too fast, too low, that the pilot may have tried to compensate may have struck a sea wall and

landed just short of the runway. of course that is a big question, that whether, in fact that is the sequence of events that will be looked at closely by investigators. i can tell you here at the international terminal planes are still coming in and still taking off. a number of flights continue to be diverted to other airports. i can to el tel you delays are lengthy here, up to four hours long. planes are using two of the four runways here at san francisco international airport. if you're travel plans include san francisco call your carrier to make sure that your flight is on time or perhaps has been cancelled. so that is the latest from san francisco. back to you. >> lauda i just wonder for people on board there was a report for a little while there were 60 people unaccounted for and everyone was fearing the worst that perhaps those people had been killed and somehow weren't able to be found but the people ended up at the airport

and they're okay. >> that is right. there was obviously a discrepancy there from 67 unaccounted for and an hour later just down to one, now, none it's because after kting error some people were counted twice at different locations but they got that sorted out. that is one bit of good news here tonight. now, everybody has been accounted for. 305 people survived thath. two people died, though and a lot of questions obviously for the pilots we don't know their condition or if they're among the fatalities. we don't know the status of the flight crew. there were 16 crew members so they'll be quite a bit of assistance with the investigators. due to arrive here again in just three hours or so going to be a long investigation and they're going to get right to work, rick. >> claudia live for us at san francisco international airport. thank you. >> first day of at kt of the

harrowing moments margaret leonardi shared her story. >> the whole thing was surreal. i think everyone on the plane was just in shock. sorry i'm in the airport. it's loud. >> you're breaking up just a little bit. maybe if you can stand still maybe we'll have the connection better? but what were you say something to your first initial response to seeing this? >> it was just surreal. i'm -- we were in shock. >> you were about a quarter of a mile away from the plane on board another plane? you're looking at your picture. >> yes. ways on the little plane coming from fresno into san francisco. we landed the last plane to land before this one. and we hit turb lens before we landed when pulled the plane

left pretty bad. our pilot corrected it. then they had to compensate by slamming on brakes pretty aggressively and then, we turned to like the end between the two runways. and we stopped. this, to wait for the plane to come in this, is the plane that went down. >> that is interesting you mentioned turbulence coming down. we've heard whether was -- weather was clear, winds, light. did the pilot say anything about the possibility of turbulence? this sm times a pilot says you know make sure you stay buckled up we have turbulence ahead. did you hear anything like that? >> no. no. the pilot didn't say anything. after we landed we were are shooken frup our landing so we just wanted to move and our pilot didn't say anything even after he saw the crash. >> did you have to sit on the plane for a little while?

were you able to get off the plane? >> no. we sat in the plane close to an hour. >> what were others saying or hearing about what is going on? >> i mean we could see it i was a small plane and we were right there but we were seeing if people were getting off. we didn't see anyone. it was just scary. >> yes. did you see emergency crews going by? respond something. >> yes. yes. every fire truck imaginable and ambulances and police. the whole crew was out there. in a matter of minutes. >> did you ever think you'd see this firsthand? >> no. no. of course not. yeah it would make you that much more thankful your plane was able to land safely. >> yeah. well, yeah. our hearts are still beating from our landing then to see

that happen. it was coming so fast at us. i thought the plane was going to crash into us. >> really? we've heard other witnesses talking about the angle of the plane. what about the angle of the plane itself. did it seem odd? directed toward the runway or away from the runway? >> i didn't see too much of the angle. i saw, i mean it did go off the runway into dirt i'm assuming it was to the right a little ways. but no. i didn't see too much. >> it did appear to be traveling fast to you? >> yeah. i saw rain when it hit the ground. >> did you hear anything? did you hear anything that sounded like that? >> when it hit, i thought it hit more like the center and

back. and almost bounce. i saw an engine fly off into the center divider where the grass s and so... >> that would explane the missing engine. we've been talking about that wondering where the engine went. you saw the plane bounce, hit on the back end and engine fly off? where did it go? >> yes. went to the center divider in between where two runways are parallel. and we have a pilot like an off duty, not commercial. just a personal pilot. but he said the engine just blew up. >> thank you so much. for joining us you've provided us with new information this evening and we appreciate it. thank you. we're glad you landed safely. >> thank you.

i am too. >> we have the latest on the investigation into the crash including an interview with the head of the national transportation safety board. >> and what kind of help can passengers of the doomed flight hope to get now that they've been involved in this? an attorney will be here to weigh in on that.@í0x;ñt

some harrowing moments for passengers on board a asiana flight 214 today. >> there were no slides. i can see a breeze but a piece of the wing goes down further. and so i -- i just told people we're okay. calm down. start getting out. you know, leave your items behind. help each other. very quickly, a lot of people started going out through that door. >> so what kind of recourse might people who survived the crash today of flight 214

expect? headlined is an attorney in los angeles joins us now. thoichbls we listened to some survivors of this awful incident. of course some of them are going to wonder maybe i can make money off of this, i'm sure attorneys are asking themselves the same question. do passengers involved in a crash like this have any kind of a claim? >> absolutely. it's certainly not their fault. >> so who would that claim be with? >> well, it depends on who was responsible for this. you know? it could be with the manufacturer of the aircraft, it would be -- could be, almost always is the airline itself. and then, maybe even the airport. >> i guess there has to be a negligence involved what if the investigation turns out that this was an act of god? some kind of a wind gust that came up somehow underneath the

wings of the plane as it was about to land. waits no fault of the pilot, no fault of the manufacturer of the aircraft. then what? >> well, i haven't seen one of those yet. so, you know, i'm waiting but that usually doesn't happen. wind gusts or wind shear is something that the airports have sensors around. they're supposed to report those pretty accurately. >> what kind of case? just based on the information we have right now? as you said we don't have a lot of information we're still waiting hopefully we'll learn more once the recorder and other devices found and we're tibl see what is going on inside of the cockpit with the plane as it's making this approach if you were in -- if you're an attorney looking at this from an investigative standpoint from someone maybe representing someone involved with this passenger on board tell me questions you'd like

to get answers to. >> well, questions that i want answers to are going to be from the ntsb and the airlines. the investigation of the airport. but... you know, as far as the action by the passengers, it's -- it's liability is absolute. the only question is what are the damages? >> talk to us about the fact this is a foreign air carrier this, is a airline that is based in south korea. the flight took place in the united states. are are there any kinds of sort of legal hurdles that would have to be overcome in order to successfully sue a foreign based airline? >> well, not anymore. so much. the montreal convention has modified that. those limitations are really gone. we don't see that anymore.

>> an attorney based in los angeles joining to us talk about legal options for people insolved today. thank you for your time. >> you're welcome. >> for much of the day, 60 people were unaccounted for. we're happy to report those people have been found. >> that is true. one common reaction from everyone near this story it's amazing many people were able to get out of the plane safely as you take a look at the pictures. stay with us our live coverage continues right after this.

well a retired aviator graduated from safety officer course and investigated several aircraft accidents.

he's joining us now by phone. thank you for being with us. >> a pleasure. >> what are these investigators looking at first? we've heard weather was good, they hopefully they were using visuals to land the plane. are they going to look at instruments in the cockpit first? >> what they're going to do is they're going to evaluate a bunch of different factors there will be human factors, there will be facility issues what kind of equipment was praifting, what wasn't. they'll look at aircraft issues, mechanical issues a flight similar scenario happened in 2008 when a boeing 777 was landing in heathrow that had been airborne on a transcontinental flight up and altitude where the temperatures were minus 60, minus 70 degrees. what happened is that the fuel didn't freeze but water in the fuel ro fros z adhered to the inside of the fuel line.

when they descended into heathrow, things starting to warm up, that ice broke loose and became slush. it caused the loss of power in both engine skptz airplane landed about 200 feet short of the runway at heathrow. now that is a very similar-sounding scenario to what happened here. so they'll look at that aspect of it to see that. back to the human thing, they'll look to see was the -- who was the pilot flying the plane for that landing. how many landings did that guy have in 90 days a lot of the major transcontinental carriers some senior pilots only get three landings in 90 days they have to go intosimulas they need to remain current is a long haul, it's not like you're flying a puddle jumper around the united states were you get multiple landings every day, every week. so the human factors will be backed at.

they'll look at environmental factors. what was the sun angem. what were things looking like? where there optical illusions? people go come on. well, your eyes can play tricks on you. they'll take a look at that stuff that. is going to fold into the human side as well. then, they'll look at all of the operations factor chz tends to move into supervisery. in other words what are the rules that the airline operated under and do those rules conform to industry standards? so there are a list of things but mostly what they're going to do is they're going to look for the factual data. those items that are black and white, no gray areas. air speed, alt tutd, -- altitude then they're going to do interview was the air crew. this is a very intact

wreckage. they're going to know what happened probably in the next 48 hours but report they won't release that if there is anything they find that was significant in the aircraft itself that will probably do a quick snap shot to industry flying that equipment to let them know about it. but the final report won't come out until all is are dotted and t's are crossed. that could be up to a year. >> it would seem they might be able to glean quite a bit of information. do you think that is going to be one of the things they do first? >> i think absolutely they'll interview air crew first. and you know if those guys say hey we were coming down added power to the engines that didn't respond, we pushed the throttles to the wall, engine didn't respond. and boom, then, what they're going to do is take a look at the black boxes, called black boxes they're not.

but they're going take a look at the flight data recorders and voice recorders. they're going pull that out. you can load data into a triple 777 simulate skbror sit there in the aircraft simulate skbror watch the throttles move and gauges move because that data is captured and they're going to be able to ride that simulator into the final moments. and be able to figure out what, was there a problem with engines or pilot error. and where the guy maybe got low and then climbed up high and then took off too much of a settle to try to get back down to glide slope and flew through the glide slope ask impacted the sea wall. all of those things are possibilities. all is speculation up until this point but national transportation safety board folks goring to pull out the facts they're going to look at black and white this, will be very clear, very shortly. >> again, captain nash do you think we can find a cause soon,

you were saying in a couple days. is that typical? >> no. because normally if you have a major are aircraft crash there is a lot of damage and possibly flight deck crew does not survive but in this case you have the crew alive, breathing and they're going to be able to find flight data recorders quickly. hopefully they won't be damaged they probably aren't because impact appears to have struck forward from the tail. those things are back into the air part so they'll probably be fine. and they'll be able po-to-put this together in relatively short terms but because of the legal issues they're going to have to go through every step and it is dotted i's crossed t's. >> all right. thank you so much for that information we appreciate it. captain chuck nash.

thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure marianne. >> we'll have a live report from los angeles on the latest from this crash from the passengers. >> we're going to have an interview with the chair of the ntsb. she's in the air on her way to the crash scene in san francisco international airport. the investigation just getting off the ground what caused the plane to crash on what seemed to be just a perfect day for to be just a perfect day for flying.

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fox news alert we've been able to confirm numbers here to let you know exactly who is involved with this morning's crash at san francisco international airport. on board a 777 with 307 people on board. just confirmation now. 123 people uninjured and all accounted for. in fact everyone has been accounted for. two people killed. a number of people had to be treated at the hospitals these are numbers we want to give you. 52 people treated at san francisco general hospital. 10 of those critically injured. 45 people treated at stanford medical center. six treated now at st. francis medical center. they're not releasing details on the conditions there. five people being treated at st. mary's medical center no, details on condition of those folks there. and two people at ucsf.

and both of those people in stable condition. we'll continue to keep you updated on the stat yufs those involved in the crash today with more information as we get it. >> we will, but we're going to go to donna live from los angeles with the latest on asiana airlines response to the crash. dominic, what can you tell us about what the airline is saying at this point? >> you know what this happened to an airline with one of the best safety records in the world. today, waits flying one aircraft that frankly the model considered one of the safest in the sky. asiana took four hours to react and they tweeted the following our thoughts and prayers are with all of the passengers. the flight crew on the flight. took a little while longer before they knew more detail that statement said asiana airlines is currently investigating the cause of the ininincident as well as injures that may have been sustained to passengers as a result.

asiana airlines will continue to cooperate with the investigation of the associated government agencies and facilitate cooperation it's established an emergency response center at headquarters from what we understand it's sending executives by private jet and they're expected to land overnight in california time. also confirming the nationality breakdown of the passengers about 19 in business class, and 252 in coach. u.s. citizens on board, 61 of those, 77 koreans. because the flight originated in china, there are 141 chinese on board then a mixture of 12 other nationalities. the airline does have a very low record of incidents, five significant events in the last two decades. that is quite a long time. worst were, well, july, 2011

cargo flight bound for shanghai that had taken off from south korea crashed in south korea apparently had a fire in the cargo department. at two crew there died now in july shortly after the airline lost it was a boeing 767 and that had taken multiple landing attempts due to the particularly bad weather at the time. airline there lost 66 passengers and a few crew as well. the industry surprised this airline considers it's record and boeing wanted to get involved being given the reputation being trusted in the sky it will want to be looking into what went wrong here.

the investigation is ongoing. back to you. >> all right, thank you so much, dominic. >> joint statement being released by department of transportation and faa saying both agencies are working to help the ntsb with the investigation now ongoing. going on to say our thanks go to first responders and thoughts and prayers go tout passengers and crew of the crew and families. a team from the national transportation safety board on its way to washington from washington rather to san francisco right now. and earlier our colleague greta van sus stren talk wtd chair woman here is what she had to say about the early stages of the investigation. >> we get to the air kroft right away. we get on a flight as soon as we can. i'm in transit now. just picking up fuel we're back up in the air so we're heading to san francisco. should arrive there this

evening. we've got folks who are on the ground from ntsb. they work in california. >> do you immediately you, yourself go out to the crash because i know you're going to almost reassemble this plane taking it through steps of the approach and crash. what do you do when you get there? >> we have a team of experts and individuals really are tops at what they do. there are people specialists in operations and structured. it's a system and they know what needs to be done. they look at the aircraft try to identify what are the issue skpdz look at operations. and we work to do as much as we can. >> do you quickly interview the pilots? assuming they haven't been injured them selfs? is that something you would do? is that done today? >> the team, the first priority is the -- for the

people who are survivors for them to get treatment to be respectful of any fatalities so first few hours belongs to the first responders. ntsb gets on scene werk do our work, witness interviews and interviews with crew are important to us we want to make sure people give us what they need. >> do you remove part of the aircraft and preserve it? like in a hangar so you can revisit it and inspect it? >> yes. we keep evidence we might need to go back to. >> in terms of the flight data recorder was that in the back of the plane is in the back looks like it ended up in the bay. >> we'll be looking at the recorders as quickly as possible. they're very important to us. and important to the investigation. >> they can take quite a

beating right? if they're in the water you'll be able to recover and get data? >> that is our hope. we know recorders can be very robust and we have many oaks where recorders have helped ous to see what happened. >> this has been really helpful. i've covered you and you guys have been thorough and also at the same time very helpful because american people always are worried because we fly so much, everybody. our hearts go out to people who died in the crash, their families so i just, have to give you a nod. i appreciate the nts boo. thank you, greta. we appreciate the people that allow us to do our jobs and get information out and cover it well, thanks. >> greta with ntsb chair tonight. a passenger on board the asiana airline flight tells what, tells her father what happened. >> sounds like by all accounts

casualty rate could have been higher, coming up what went wrong right as we continue our special coverage into the crash at san francisco international airport. back in just a moment. emily: hi, everyone. i'm emily.

i'm super excited to introduce my dad because he's my hero. when i was little, he was doing this really important work driving ambulances in iraq. now he's home. and he's still a hero because he tells the ambulances where to go when there's an emergency. i'm so proud of him. he's awesome. he's my dad! announcer: if your service-connected disability hinders your civilian career, vocrehab offers a variety of services to help prepare you for your next mission. my daughter called me and said that it seemed like they kind of overshot the runway a little bit. and came down hard on the front tire. and from what she recalled the

tire fell off. back tire came off then started to roll and flipped over, caught fire. the fire was up front. and then, came to a rolling stop then started evacuating everybody. >> the former pilot has flown the kind of plane that crashed in san francisco. the boeing 777. he spoke, and what are your thoughts? >> looks to me after they showed the picture of the overrun and of that beyond the end of the runway at least a part of the aircraft struck that before it ended up on the runway and slide together left side there. whether that was the tail of the aircraft, or the landing gear, i don't know. but we did see the landing gear laying on the runway. in some of the view that's is what it looked like.

part of the aircraft struck well short of the runway. >> would it make a difference if ils is out and you have clear conditions? i assume that is easy to -- not easy but for a trained pilot, 777 pilot easy to land that plane? with ils being out on a clear day? >> it should not be a problem. i did it many times without an ils. actually it'ser for the pilot because ate lous us to practice some of the skills we don't get to do often. it isn't a complicated thing. particularly on that aircraft. >> is there any assistance from a computer or anything when land? is that manually landed? >> well, yes. the pilot should be behind the controls on this type of landing. usually i heard a remark there is a visual slope indicator

which is a light system with a red light on the top. and white light on the bottom. you're on the visual glide slope for that oneway. i do not recall if that particular runway has that. i would suggest it does because it is san francisco international airport. >> what kind of conversation going on in the cockpit flaft minutes before you touch down? >> under normal circumstances just finishing check list. and very little conversation as you're in a sterile cockpit situation on short file so there is very little other than immediate stuff like speed, altitude, and that kind of stuff. >> there was a problem, a mechanical problem or maybe a design flaw with british airlines flight in january, 2008. when it had a runway problem. at heathrow was there anything about the 777 when you flew

you were uneasy about you? thought there was a kink in the system that made you feel unusual? >> not that i personally experienced. i remember when that happened what is pointed out is there were moisture crystals in the fuel system preventing engines from spooling aup louing pilots to add power to fly out. could that have happened in this circumstance? of course it could. it could be any number of things but what we have is of course you've heard flight data recorder and the voice recorder once recovering those recorders and are able to get information from them, plus that united flight 885 that was sitting there waiting to take off, they had a bird's eye view of what happened. so there is a lot of information that will be forth coming from hopefully those pilots that watched it happen, and as well as pilots that

were on the aircraft asiana aircraft that crash landed. >> the 777 had troubles in london had different engines than this plane does. does that suggest that is maybe not likely the problem? >> i don't know whether it's the same or different engines there are i think three different combinations that the 777 has. i don't know whether they were the same or different. so that is -- . >> is 777 a great plane as a passenger. how about to fly? >> it's a great plane to fly. >> yes. horrible to see this, look at this plane. i don't think passengers should ab frayed of this one. i felt uneasy in dc 10 but 777 is a beautiful aircraft great for passenger autos yes. it is. >> a clip from greta's coverage earlier. when you look at the airplane greta and her guest were just talking about, devastation is hard to believe.

a number of fatalities, too. >> right. especially when looking at damage of the plaechblt we've got an expert are joining us next maybe he can shed some light on that. stay w

when you look at pictures from san francisco international airport today, it's just stunning to imagine that more people weren't killed in such a horrific accident. >> scott curtis is a form safety analyst with boeing this, was a boeing-made jet. >> correct. >> 777. this is a airplane with a great safety record. this is an airline. asiana air with a good safety record. i think it's important to remind people in times like this that overall, air travel

is very safe. >> absolutely. in fact this is the first time there has been a very large airliner in a fatal crash in the united states since november, 2001 here in new york this is an unprecedented period in american aviation ask a long time between major accidents so this is going to be something that will be looked at closely. >> we're talking about anything pilots could have done. you were describing debris trail in the fact that you know, maybe they tried to pull up and couldn't and they were able to get the plane down not to have more casualties. >> from what the witness statements of the passenger say it seems there was a thrust put on before touchdown but likely too late to add air speed and keep it from landing roughly a thousand feet short of the intended touchdown point. >> in your best estimate is there anything pilots could have done? >> that will be determine bid what the investigators find because there was likely a

series of thing that's went on before touchdown. issue that's led them to land a thousand feet short probably happened way before touchdown. >> i just look at the fuselage of the plane. realizing that, the catastrophic impact where the tail flew off and a resulting fire that led to the top of the fuj laj to be burned off. you hear only two people killed and hear about the number of people who were injured and of course our hearts go out to everybody involved with this. but talk to us about safety behind the scenes in airplane manufacturing. the kind of advances that have taken place over the years over the last 20, 30 years have gotten to us a point where a plane can make this kind of imexact result in such little loss of life. >> well, every accident is a learning experience for the industry. every time there is a major accident there is usually coming that comes out of it that makes the aircraft more

crash worthy, more able to survive even as the crash we saw today or systems get put into place to make it less likely to happen in the first place. >> what, with this particular plane were what were advances? what were thing that's went into the development of this airplane that light might have saved liveses today. >> one is a requirement all modern airliners be able to evacuate a full passenger load with only half doors operate weg saw there are two doors that had escape slides deployed. and the fact that with only two out of the eight one in four of the doors opened. that the entire passenger and crew were able to get out of the aircraft with a minimal loss of life. >> moving forward we're hearing the important thing is probably going to be talking to the pilots regarding what happened. >> absolutely. black boxes have data from the

aircraft but the fact that you have both pilot as live they can give their own testimony as to what was going to their minds whark decisions were made that would complement data coming from flight boxes. >> todd curtis is a founder and publisher. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> and that is going to do it for our busy day. a special day of coverage of this ka tas strofy in san francisco that could have been worse. the crash of flight 214. >> could have been. >> fox going to resume live coverage at 5:00 a.m. eastern with fox and friends first, thanks for joining us. have a good night.