i understand that maeve reston with the "l.a. times" is there. are you there? do we have her? okay. we have greg on the phone. the ntsb has deployed a team rather to san francisco, obviously, considering the circumstances. that's protocol. greg, first of all, what if anything are you hearing about this particular crash? greg okay. we don't have greg fife there. why don't we reset here for just a few moments. there's an asiana airlines plane that you're looking at to the right of the screen that is

sitting off runway 28 at the san francisco international airport. we're told that passengers managed to jump down the emergency inflatable slides to safety. not he immediately known at this point whether there are any injuries, nor do we know at this point how many folks are injured. john cox, captain cox is still there. former u.s. airways pilot. are you there? >> yes, i am. >> the scene that we're looking at right now, lots of emergency personnel, obviously on the runway. fire trucks there on the scene. we saw folks, we saw those firefighters just a short time ago using that white retardant to continue to douse the flames. it appears as if right now, the smoke that had been billowing from that plane, it looks like the smoke itself has stop. the plane that we're seeing, there is no tail on that maybe. >> there is no tail on the

airplane now. if you look back at the early part of the runway, you do see the tail. both the vertical and horizontal stabilizers. they're there. it is just if they're on the runway earlier in the debris field than the main fuselage. >> we're not controlling this helicopter view right now of the plane or the debris that's on runway 28. you were commenting a few moments ago about the position of the debris. the position of the broken plane. what does the positioning of the stuff that you see on the right side of the screen there, what does the positioning of that debris tell you? >> it tells me the airplane was on the ground very early. meaning that it was shedding parts and creating debris in, long before the touchdown zone itself. in the displaced threshold. that's not normal. so that's one of the things that the investigators are going to look at. to understand where the first

point of contact was and the attitude of the airplane, when it did touchdown there. but it touched down very, very early. that's something that will be very interesting to the investigators. >> i understand we have paul mcarthury. he is an nbc news reporter. the fact that the tail is not on the plane. we just saw part or all of it on runway 28. what does that tell you? >> i would agree with john. if you look at the debris field, it actually starts at the seawall if not before. the aircraft was extraordinarily low for that kind of an approach. and if the video is representative of the weather that's existing at san francisco, you would have to say that weather may not have been a consideration. so it is difficult to try to conceive right now of what would

have caused the crew to let the airplane get that low on the approach. because it is probably several hundred feet lower than it should have been at that particular point in space. >> we can also still see at least two chutes jutting out from the left side of the boeing 777. we've seen a number of people leave that airplane. we do know that there are a number of survivors, at least. are you hearing anything else? about either the number of people on board or the number of injuries? >> no. i think this is evolving so quickly, the airline has not made that type of information available. but it does hopefully look like for the large part, a survivable type of accident. i would expect while there could be some serious injuries, i would speck that with those slides deployed, we could have some survivors as well. >> when was the last time to your knowledge that one of these

boeing 777s went down like this in the states? >> well, here in the states, not. but london heathrow they had an aircraft that experienced a twin engine failure on final. and landed in a very similar situation. >> walk us through protocol if you can, paul. the pilot getting ready for landing at san francisco international airport. you know, weather again based on what we've heard from the weather channel, empirical evidence. weather doesn't seem to be an issue. the pilot is about to land this thing and all of a sudden, there is some sort of problem. what does the pilot then say to folks on board? >> well, he doesn't say anything to the folks on board. he concentrates exclusively at that point in time on trying to do something with the airplane. and i would point out that if in fact it is a malfunction, and we have no way of knowing. the aircraft did not clearly, it was not a high impact evolution. the fuselage is intact.

the wings are intact. the tail and the engines came off and that's to be expected. you will have a post crash fire. that's quite common. this is a survivable accident and that could very well be because the pilot was working very hard to get it done. >> it sounds like you're looking at the same images that we're looking at here. as we look at this fuselage that is, you know, obviously pretty bad shape here. burned out. up until about 15 minutes ago, firefighters were dousing with it the white flame retardant. the extent of the fire. what does that tell but the plane? >> well, quite frankly, this is a common fire pattern for a low impact type of accident. you will get a fuel leak. the fire will go up the side of the airplane and burn down the top where the aluminum tends to be the thinnest. not necessarily a catastrophic fire. >> we're also getting our first accounts of witnesses who were in the area. a reporter there says an unnamed

eyewitness said that the plane itself was teetering as it approached the runway. they say that the tail of the plane hit the runway. the nose of the plane was in the air, higher than the tail. this comes from an eyewitness on the ground at sfo. the tail of the plane hits the runway. the nose of the maybe in the air, higher than the tail. paul, what does that tell you? >> well, number one, it tells me that i never rely on eyewitnesses. this airplane has a flight data record per will give us all the information in the world. probably by tomorrow morning. and we'll know exactly why and where the thing hit. but if you ever look at a landing airplane, you will see that the nose is higher than the tail and that's the way airplanes come in to land. it doesn't tell me anything unusual. >> tom costello standing by as well. do we have any new information? >> clear as if this plane came

down and hit runway 28 left very early. can you come out for just a minute to my camera position? we have a diagram here of runway 28 left. this is the entire san francisco airport. i'll ask my camera man to zoom in a little bit. this is runway 28 left right here. you can see the debris starts right here at the water's edge. right there. that would appear his tail slammed down right at the end of the runway. just at the very beginning, i should say. and then he quickly was in the grass after the runway, to the side of the runway. i can't tell from the video whether he is to the right or the left but it does appear that very quickly he got off this runway and was in the grass. this approach is the one he was trying to make. coming in on 28 left. something went wrong very, very early. and as you can see, debris right there at the beginning of the runway. the other important point i would make here is that in 2008, there was a 777. a british airways 777 on a long flight. i believe it was coming from

asia into london heathrow and they had a clogged fuel line. and as a result they lost power in both engines and the plane slammed down, short of the runway. everybody got out, goff off alive. everybody. what they later found was that the fuel lines have been clogged. they had a problem with ice crystals in the fuel lines. this may not, of course, flying at a very high altitude where it is very cold. they solved that problem, or at least they thought they solved that problem. so did this plane coming in from asia at a very high altitude, you know, they will clearly be looking at whether there was any sort of an engine failure as they look at all the possible scenarios that will clearly be among the scenarios they will look at. the 777 has an amazing safety record. i would point out that this is the first major crash involving a major plane. in other words, a boeing or an air bus plane in the united states since 2001.

november of 2001 when an american airlines plane bus crashed in queens and killed everybody on board as well as on the ground. since then, yes, we've had regional plane crashes which are tragic but we have not had a major plane crash in this country involving loss of life since november 2001 and we are hopeful this will also be a crash without any loss of life. >> tom, thank you, sir. do stand by. we are starting to hear from folks who were on board that plane, we're told. there was a tweet from the "chicago sun times" in part, i just crash landed at sfo. most everyone seems fine. i'm okay. that's the editor of the "chicago sun times." also getting this from our affiliate in los angeles. our affiliate in los angeles. apparently retweeting from san francisco. boeing 777 down. 303 souls on board.

all 303 accounted for at this time. that's from our affiliate out there right now. i want to bring in greg fife who is with the ntsb. are you there? >> yes, i am. >> we understand that the ntsb has deployed a team to san francisco international. also, first order of business is to try to retrieve that so-called black box. what else? what comes first? >> the big thing is getting all the players that will participate in the board's investigation together so that they can actually start to process investigating. of course the crew will be sequestered and they will eventually employ statements. the ntsb will survey the site. they will see what they have to work with. as you mentioned, they will look for the cockpit voice recorder and the data record he. those are their two priorities right now so they can get some early information to help the

investigative team on the ground focus in on any kind of mechanical malfunction or failure that may have occurred that caused the crew to have a problem manipulating or flying the airplane. it is obvious that the aircraft touched down short. it looks like the tail has struck the seawall. the airplane would have had to be in a very nose high pitch attitude. so they're going to want to know why the crew got themselves into that situation. whether it was a mechanical problem or they just got from a flight operations discipline issue, whether they got behind the proverbial power curve. that is, they were on approach. they got the airplane too slow. they tried to increase the pitch attitude to keep the airplane flying to the runway and struck the wall short of the runway. we call that an undershoot. that tends to be an issue with airline type operations that the board will be looking at. >> also, according to kntv in

san francisco, there were 291 passengers aboard the boeing 777. that's what we are getting from kntv. again on the left side of the screen, folks, you can see a number of those folks, a number of people aboard that plane were able to climb to safety using the two chutes that are jetting out from that asiana airlines plane. that plane, we're told, left seoul, south korea yesterday. it was scheduled to land 11:15 local time in san francisco. about 2:15 eastern. obviously. as it was approaching runway 28, something went terribly wrong. we know right now in not sfra, the weather is just fine. we heard from a meteorologist from the weather channel, conditions there as that plane approached the runway. conditions were partly cloudy. the winds was somewhere between

5 and 10 miles an hour. captain cox, are you still there? okay. we don't have captain cox. we do have greg fife. are you still there? >> yes, i am. >> greg, are you at the same pictures that we're looking at right now on television? are you in front of a television? >> yes. i am. i am seeing those pictures. >> as you look to the right side of the screen there, no tail on the plane, fuselage appears to be intact. what does -- stephanie joins us on the phone right now. stand by for me. stephanie turner is with me. i understand, stephanie, that you actually saw this happen? >> yeah, yeah. that's correct. wear staying tt at the marriott on the water. we happened to be standing outside our hotel and watching when the plane came in.

>> what did you see? >> we saw there was a huge jet sitting still on the runway which was actually what had caught our attention toward the runway. i think it was the united jet. i'm not sure. it was huge and just sitting still on the runway. as we were watching, we saw just the asiana flight approaching and we noticed that the angle was wrong. i'm sure you heard that from other eyewitnesses as well. but the tail was too low as it was approaching. and i was really worried because [ inaudible ] the width of the runway. i could be tell whether it would hit the other jet directly or, i was very, very nervous. then, so the may not came in at a bad angle. the tail kind of clipped the run way. i think that's when the tail broke off. and it did kind of several flips, cartwheeled down the runway. and then when it came to rest,

there were flames and smoke just billowing out of the fuselage. >> the plane flipped several times? >> yeah. it looked like it might have just, when you're just looking at images on tv, it looked like it might have just skidded to a stop but it really went through quite a few an row batiks on the runway. >> the tail clipped the runway. that's what you saw. >> yeah. it came in at a bad angle instead of being flat. the tail was very low. that seems to be what caused it. >> and then after it came to a stop, after it avoided the other aircraft. first of all, how close did it get to the other plane on the runway? >> it is impossible to tell. it went behind it. the other jet that was on the runway was actually between us and the crashing plane so we could not see exactly how close

it got. >> did you see the emergency vehicles respond? did you see the response? >> we were very troubled by what we had seen, obviously. so we actually left the scene. we did see before we left, we saw the emergency flags come out. so we felt like that was a good sign that there were at least some survivors. but we were just very disturbed. so we left as the emergency crew was arriving. so we didn't actually see the emergency crews treating the plane. >> you mentioned as you saw the boeing 777 approach, you said that the angle was wrong. what do you mean by that? just the fact that the tail was too low? or was something else wrong with the plane. >> the tail was too low. that's what i mean. instead of coming in flat, it was coming in at maybe a 45-degree angle with the tail

far too low. >> the fire that you saw, could you make out where that fire was? >> no, no. i really couldn't. it was coming out. we could see it on the top of the plane but we could not tell where it was originating, no. >> but you saw the chutes come out the sides of the plane. >> yes, we did. >> but you did not see the people that we've since seen come down those chutes. is that right? >> no, we didn't. we had gone back to our room by then. >> have you turned on the television since? are you watching these pictures now? >> yeah. we're watching now. and you know, it appears as though there are a lot of survivors and we're just so relieved. we were sure that we had seen a very serious tragedy. so we're very relieved to see reports that it looks like most everybody is okay. >> what did, before i let you go, you mentioned that the tail clipped the run way. what about the wings? what did you see the wings

doing? >> you know, i'm not sure. i mean, we saw the plane rolling quite a bit. i assumed that the wings had broken off. but now seeing photos of the run wearing it is clear that didn't happen. but really most of the focus for me was watching the tail break off. >> stephanie turner, an eyewitness to this plane crash in san francisco. again, 291 passengers aboard that plane, according to kntv. stephanie, thank you. >> thank you. >> i understand you heard that. >> i thought she was saying the tail, when it broke off, it cartwheeled down the runway. i'm not sure the plane did. every indication we've had suggests that the plane itself slammed down hard right there on the runway or down in the middle section. i've got this. federal sources are telling us, there is no indication of terrorism or criminal activity.

whatever happened appears to have been an accident. after talking to experts, it appears everyone of the emergency exits and chutes deployed. and giving people time to get out. not only that, people had the wherewithal to open them, to get the chutes moving and to jump out. that's a good sign. we have no reports, to my knowledge yet, of any sort of a mass casualty situation. our earliest reporting from those who are on the plane and who are tweeting suggests that everybody got out alive. which is of course good news. if this plane was at the end of a very long 10 1/2 hour flight or so from seoul, korea. at the end of the approach, which clearly seems to be runway 28 left and then hit the seawall. slammed into the seawall. it would have been in a deceleration mode. not an acceleration mode and moving very slowly indeed. so as the maybe, it would have been playing out as like a slow

motion crash, if you will. and clearly, if you had to have a tragedy like this happen, this is about as good a situation you can have where the tail slams down. you lose the tail. nobody is in the tail. and then the plane comes to rest in the medium there and people are able to get off in time before the fire consumes the plane. so all in all, this is really a remarkable story if the earliest reports from those on the plane, and i would note one of them who is tweeting is himself a journalist. all of that would certainly be good news and indicate an amazing survival story here. >> tom costello watching all of this from the d.c. bureau. the headline according to federal officials, nothing sinister here. this is not according to the government at this time. not an indication of terrorism. it appears to be just an awful,

awful accident. thank you. to stand by. chloe harrison is with us. 13 years old, i understand. i understand you were on plane at san francisco international airport. >> yes. >> what did you see, chloe? >> we were just sitting waiting for news on what happened and i looked to my right and there was just pillars of smoke coming up. and there was a plane with like the tail completely missing. and we waited for about a half-hour. and then we got news that it had crashed upon landing.

>> were you close enough to see people getting off? >> we weren't close enough so no, i didn't. >> you mentioned you saw smoke. did you also see some flames? >> i didn't see any flames, no. >> the debris that we're seeing on television, a lot of this, pieces of the plane that are strewn about runway 28. did you see a lot of the plane broken apart? >> yeah. i saw lots of debris. i am assuming it was from the plane. >> where are you now? are you inside the airport? >> yeah. i'm at my gate. >> what is the scene like there inside the airport? >> everything is very hectic. everyone is trying to contact their friends and family. it is really loud. >> chloe harrington, thank you so much. 13-year-old who was on a plane on the runway at sfo.

saw the aftermath. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> maeve reston is also on the phone. of course with the l.a. times, joins us regularly here on msnbc to talk about things political. today we are obviously talking about these images that we're showing folks at home. what are you hearing there at the airport? what is the scene like inside the airport? >> obviously, craig as your other guests told you, there is at love chaos and confusion. i talked to a number of passengers who were either on their plane when this plane crashed. we had land ad good deal earlier so we kind of saw the aftermath out on runway 28. but people are being told that there are no flights coming in and out of the airport for the rest of the day. trying to figure out whether to rebook or leave the airport. i've also walked over to

international arrivals to try to find families of the folks on the plane. and people are just kind of milling around here. i would say a little while ago at 1:00, we did see some large passenger buses heading out to the downed plane on runway 28. potentially to bring people off the plane. it is unclear what this would have been used for. they're big tour buses that you might see that could carry a lot of people away from the scene. there were boats racing around the water in the runway. there is a large plane stranded in between the downed plane and the water. so it is unclear how many passengers are just sitting there. potentially trying to get off. the gate agents did tell us that they're not allowing movement around the airport. so you cannot get on a bus and go to a different terminal if you're stranled.

so there is a lot of confusion at the moment. >> maeve reston, thank you. maybe if you can stick around, we would love to come back to you in a little bit.maybe if yo we would love to come back to you in a little bit.>> maeve re. maybe if you can stick around, we would love to come back to you in a little bit. >> there is a source close to the investigation telling nbc news at this point that the pilot of that boeing 777 did not make any distress calls prior to the landing. it was a routine landing as far as they know. that's a source close to the investigation telling nbc news that the pilot did not make a distress call as he attempted to land that plane on runway 28. we're also being told that there is a news conference that is being scheduled here. it could happen sometime in the next five or ten minutes there in san francisco. when that does happen, we will, we are every effort to get that to you live as well. according to kntv, according to

the affiliate there, there were some 291 people aboard that boeing 777 when it crash landed you are on the left side, what is left. the may not is without a tail. we heard from eyewitnesses a short time ago that as it was approaching, the tail clipped off. based on what she saw, the tail then flipped down the runway several times on the right side, you're looking at a picture we got from twitter. and you can see the chutes from the left side of the screen. we saw a number of people get off that plane. we're still waiting on official word. official word regarding the number of survivors and if there were any injuries, obviously, the number of injuries as well. i believe we have paul mccarthy

with us now. an nbc analyst. are you there? >> hello. >> were you able to hear the eyewitness account we had on a few minutes ago? >> yes. >> based on what she saw happen, does that give you any sort of insight into what may have happened with this plane? >> no. once again, once the airplane, and it would seem that the airplane struck either at the barrier between the water and the land or shortly there after. and it would be my best guess that once that tail hit, the airplane would look as though it were going through several gyrations but in fact it would be dissipating the energy and keeping the hull intact. so the gyrations would not be what you would think of aerobatiks as it would be a

truck '60ing down an icy highway. it is skin with whconsistent wie at. >> wai based on what we're hearing, at this point it sounds like everyone on board, according to our affiliates there it sounds like what we're seeing is probably far worse than what obviously could have been. >> no question about that. and thank goodness for the fact that there do not appear to be any fatalities. there may in fact be some injuries. it is too early, probably even to know that. we'll get that from the airlines press conference. but yes, this could have been quite a bit worse. i guess it is a testament to the strength of the airplane that it was not. >> as we approach 4:30 on the east coast. i want to update you precisely

on what you're at right now. this is an asiana airlines flight headed from seoul, south korea. it left seoul 4:30 yesterday. it was set to than in san francisco around 11:15 local time. obviously 2:15 here on the east coast as it was approaching runway 28, something went terribly wrong. that plane crash handed. it is resting to the left of runway 28. passenger were seen jumping down the emergency slides. at this point we have no official word on the number of injuries. kntv the affiliate there saying there were 291 people on board. at one point we heard from air traffic control that the pilots did get off the plane. we've heard from an eyewitness. we heard from an eyewitness on the air a short time ago that it

appeared as if, it appeared as if the tail of that plane was very low as it approached. hit the runway, fell off, flipped the number of times down the runway. tom costello telling us, at this point the government does not think this is the result of anything sinister. they're not using the words terrorism at this point. a source close to the investigation says the pilot made no distress calls prior to the landing. it was a routine landing as far as they know. that's a source close to the investigation. this was a boeing 777. it was supposed to land on runway 28. >> there is a new tweet from

boeing in response to today's crash. it says we are aware of the incident at sfo and continue to gather information. they say our thoughts are with everyone affected by today's incident. we stand ready to assist the ntsb. the ntsb, the national transportation safety board is sending a crew obviously to investigate what happened here. there is also a lot of tweeting going on from people who were at the airport and actually on the plane. he says, i don't want to divert attention away from the crash. he says, he is posting updates. basically to let everybody know that the majority of passengers seem to be okay. he says, he is okay. he says lots of activity here, he is asking his friends, please don't call right now. i'm fine. the people are mostly calm. he says that fire and rescue people are all over the place. they're evacuating the injured and haven't felt this way since 9/11. so obviously, this was very

traumatic even though it seems most people do seem to be calm and okay. we're also hearing that san francisco general is standing by to receive the injured and we are waiting to hear. >> thank you so much. obviously we'll continue to watch for the information coming across social media. we should note that nbc l.a., our affiliate in los angeles, is quoting san francisco fire right now. they're saying that there were 303 people on board. 303 is what we're hearing from our nbc affiliate in los angeles. >> an official number when there is that news conference we are hearing that will happen at some point here. at that point, obviously, we'll be getting a lot of information about precisely what happened to this asiana airlines flight that was headed to san francisco from south korea when something again went terribly wrong on the approach. we heard from the weather

channel, we heard from alex wilson with the weather channel, probably about an hour ago. we're looking at the conditions in san francisco. and she said that partly cloudy, about 65 degrees. there was no wind to speak of. the winds at that point as this may not was supposed to land between five and ten miles per hour. the federal aviation official again saying that at this point, it is not immediately known whether there were any injuries aboard the flight. we do know that an ntsb team as is customary is headed to that seen. headed to the scene of that crash landing in san fernando. all of this went down, we're told, sometime around 11:15 local time in san francisco. left side of the screen, a live look at what's left of that asiana airlines flight. right side of your screen, the runway. you can see there, you can see the debris on the right side of the screen. we were told by an eyewitness a

short time ago that she basically saw this plane, at least part of it, break apart as it approached. captain john cox has been with me throughout the afternoon. flew for u.s. air for about 25 years. captain, i don't think i've talked to you since we heard from the eyewitness account. based on what we've heard from someone who saw this happen, any additional information that we can glean from the eyewitness account? >> i think the eyewitness is going to corroborate what the evidence on the runway shows, that the tail is early, very early in the debris field. and that indicates a high likelihood of contact with the runway. so that's one of the big questions the investigators are going to ask. how did the airplane break apart? what hit first and then the follow-up question of how and why it did that. and i think that's one of the principal things they'll be focusing on in the early days of the investigation. >> what about the source close

to the investigation telling nbc news, the pilot made no distress calls prior to the landing? would that be customary or is that unusual? >> it is not unusual at all. if there is a problem and it develops very quickly, the crew is busy doing other things. and advising air traffic control of an on board problem is not the highest priority. i wouldn't put any significance in that either way at this early stage. >> you mentioned the crew taking care of some other business on board, obviously. what would the crew at this point be telling passengers to do? or would the pilot get over the intercom and say a great deal? >> it is too early to tell. we don't know when the crew realized that something was not normal. something was amiss. so if it occurred very late in

the landing just prior to touchdown, they would not have the opportunity to tell the passengers anything. if they knew earlier on of a potential problem, they would have told them. but until we interview the passengers, until they get the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, that is when we'll learn when the crew knew what. >> according to the faa, flights in and out of that airport, flights in and out of san francisco international have been canceled at this point, we do not know when that airport is going to reopen. you are looking at folks. that's probably the best shot we've gotten this afternoon. no tail on that plane. psych the bulk of that plane has burned out that's the closest look we've gotten.

melissa rehberger is standing by. >> shut down flights. this is their tweet from san francisco airport. they say all flights are currently suspended. please check for upindicated information. this is very important for anyone traveling around that area. clearly your plans are going to change. and the airport is just letting us know that. another tweet from the fellow named david whom i mentioned earlier. he tweets he is at the terminal now. very grateful i'm okay. saying thanks for all your best wishes but please do not call me right now. we'll keep everyone posted. clearly everyone is trying to reach out to people on that airplane that's what we're hearing on twitter. if you are there, check with your airline. there will definitely be changes. >> we also just got word that there is going to be a news conference, an ntsb news conference at 5:30 eastern time.

that news conference will be in d.c. again, there is word of a news conference in san francisco we are going to try to get that information and pass it on to you. the information for the team there to san francisco, also holding a news conference at 5:30. tom costello telling us about 20 minutes ago, at this point the government does not think this was an act of trifl. the government at this point, not thinking it is terrorism or anything other than a terrible accident. bob hager is on the phone with us. good to hear your voice. >> not under these circumstances. >> based on what you're seeing, and based on the, the decades that you spent covering planes, covering plane crashes.

what can you tell us? >> i think one thing for people to look at with the images coming from san francisco. you see that huge blackened top of the hull. and you think, how could anybody have gotten out of there alive? but that would have occurred well after the crash as the tail broke off, you get a lot of misting fuel around. that causes the fire. so it is the time between when the plane hit and the fire then later consumed the fuselage. a good amount of time would have gone by. that's why so many people could get out. i think it is crucial right now. to hear official confirmation. we have several tweets from passengers saying they believe

everybody got out. that's just crucial to find out was anybody killed, anybody injured? it seems there would be some physical injuries from the turmoil as that plane came to rest finally. so that's a key thing. the other thing that occurs to me is this is such bad news. it has been so long since we've had a crash on u.s. soil of a full size airplane. we've had a couple of regional airliners go down. but it has been since 2001, way back before 9/11. the crash of any commercial full size commercial planes on u.s. soil, it has been that long. that's a tremendous period of

time. i remember when there was a crash once or twice a year sometimes. >> you make an observation that wasn't lost us on as we look at the picture, the live picture on the left and the picture on the right. when you look at that plane, missing a tail. we heard from an eyewitness a short time ago, that tail clipped off on the runway and flipped a few time down the runway. you look at that burned out airplane. it is truly amazing at this point. that we have not started to get reports of not just massive injuries but casualties as well. what does that tell you about the way airplanes are made nowadays? versus 20, 30 years ago? >> yeah. there have been an awful lot of safety improvements and a lot of time was devoted to making sure people could get out quickly before fire consumed the airplane. if they survived the impact of a crash.

just a whole lot of attention went into how quickly could they exit the aircraft. and i think we've heard that so many of the different emergency slides deployed. so there are a number of different ways to get out of the aircraft. they've done a lot of work on materials, on the seats, on the walls to make them less susceptible to a quick flashover fire. eventually they're going to burn as things heat up and the fuel fire gets hot enough. but all the research went into slowing down that point at which the planes flash over and then it is impossible to get out. that may have really paid off in this case. we're waiting for that official confirmation. as you said, the fact that so much time has gone by and we're not hearing of a number fatalities any way. that's really good news. >> you mentioned the american airlines plane that went down in 2001. it was taking off from jfk in

2001. that was the last time we saw something like this. we should point out for our viewers at home that a source close to the investigation has told nbc news that the pilot of this asiana airline flight, the pilot made no distress calls prior to landing the plane. there was a routine landing. as far as we know. that's according to a source close to the investigation telling nbc news that. >> what that really tells you is that whatever happened, it happened quickly. that it was not some kind of mechanical problem that the pilot had been working on for a while. that this was suddenly something that happened very, very fast. >> we've gotten that news conference confirmed, by the way. the ntsb news conference. it will be with the charity of the ntsb. that will happen at reagan national airport which is actually technically not in d.c.

it is in northern virginia. let's talk quickly about this type of aircraft. a boeing 777 long range plane. typically used for, you know, flights of generally 12 hours or more, right? >> yes. and you know, it has a remarkable record. so nothing in the history of this plane that would say that it is particularly susceptible to trouble as compared to any other models. it has been a work horse on the modern day fleet. by the way, let me mention in that news conference. the ntsb. they routinely do that as they leave washington and one wouldn't expect any really important information out of that. just to say that they're leaving. they're going to get onsite and break it down into committees. it is usually more about logistics. the more important news conference would be the one

we've heard that they're talking about the airline giving, that's where you might get some figures on injuries, things like that. >> bob hager, as you indicated, good to hear your voice but not unthese circumstances. be well, my friend. >> tom casey is standing by for us. tom casey is a former american airlines pilot. he flew boeing 777s. he is now a flight instructor. how are you? i understand that you've heard a lot of what we've been talking about here. i want to bring you up to speed on one thing that you may not have heard. this came from an eyewitness. someone who was nearby at a hotel. saw this plane. making its approach. saw that tail get clipped off the plane. clip the runway, according to this eyewitness. >> well, it handed low. the visual approach evidently,

weather conditions were good. the only problem with modern aircraft is the incredible sophisticated of the auto system. and the auto systems can rob a pilot of basic airmanship skills and the pilot may not realize that these skills have been diminished because of an overreliance on the auto system. so paradoxically, a visual landing in wonderful weather conditions is probably more of a challenge to an average 777 pilot than an instrument landing. on the instruments, the plane is flying itself or the pilot is flying on electronic cues. so it is something the ntsb is going to take a hard look at. i can guarantee you. it looks from all of the tapes i've seen, and the discussion that's taken place, that it was an unfortunate incident of either pilot error or some sort

of technical glitch that interfered with the normal landing process that's all i can say but as far as we know, there have been no fatalities. is that correct? >> at this point we have not heard of any. as you are talking, we could continue to see that fire truck. again at this point norg confirm casualties. no confirmed injuries at this point as well. we're still waiting to get some official word on that. the source saying the pilot made no distress calls prior to landing. is that customary? >> until they made contact with the seawall. because the plane was probably

in an acceptable position to land and then drifted off its glide slope at the last second. and it might have gotten into a sink. they have a tendency to sink if there isn't a sufficient amount of power. so it is a power and pitch and velocity situation. it all depends on how the pilot was flying the approach. there is less likely a chance for this sort of misha. if he was flying it visually, just on visual cues, there is i said ironically, a greater chance for a mishap like this. >> what would determine whether he used the automated approach or the visual approach? >> well, the automated approach would be, the auto pilot would be engaged and the plane would fly down the glide slope with

the auto throttles approach. so it would be met with the electronic demand. the auto pilot would supply the power and the pile just monitors that. the pilot on a beautiful day ded to hand glide, which is his prerogative, and he misjudged it, if he got behind the power curve, then plan began to settle in, and he didn't realize it. or the visual cues they have. they have a lighting system of red over white or white over red, and it tells the pilot whether he is on the glide slope. he was evidently below it. whether he knew this or not, you know, we have to have the ntsb look into this and come to a final judgment. >> tom casey right now, a retired american airlines pilot. we just got word from multiple sources now telling nbc news that early indications at this point are that the plane came in too short for landing, and its

tail hit the seawall at the airport. presumably you've flown into san francisco, correct? >> i have. >> talk to us a little bit about where this seawall is in relationship to where the runway is. >> well, it is just, it is extended from the center line of the end of the runway. and the touchdown point is 1,000 feet down the paved runway. so the glide slope would have the lapping gear touchdown 1,000 feet down the runway. he was, i mean, if in fact this is what happened, where the tail, you can imagine the jet when it is coming in. it is nose eye and tail low. then the wheels are extended below the angle of the tail. if he hit the seawall, he was continuing to descend and the wheels cleared the seawall and the tail hit the seawall so he was fast enough to let that

happen prior to the runway. so this is what we call a sink rate. if that's what happened. in any case, it was something that, it can be in airlines, fits not arrested by automated systems or by the pilot reconciling his power. then this sink rate can be very deleterious. it can rapidly go into this situation. >> as we look at what's left of this airplane, this asiana airlines airplane, it is really miraculous, considering that it has been -- >> astonishing. >> yeah. we're more than two and a half hours at this point. no reports of fatalities. at this point -- >> something to look into and examine really, the efficiency of the crew. the cabin crew in the evacuation

procedures. these planes are tested for their certificate in evacuation. they have to be evacuated within 90 seconds in a test evacuation. and if all the people got out of this from what we see now, this was an heroic effort where everybody did the right thing after the consequence. >> you just alluded to it. walk us through what protocol would be. let's say again, pilot's approaching. something goes wrong in the cockpit. what does the pilot then do? we know according to sources that he did not make a distress call. does he at that point alert the flight attendants to get the cockpit, or the get the plane ready for crash landing? >> right. there is a prebriefing that takes place before every flight. the captain briefs the crew on all procedures and also evacuation procedures. everybody is trained for that. in the 777, it is a button. an evacuation signal. when the button is pressed, it

sounds throughout the cabin and it is an unmistakable sound. that alerts the cabin crew that the plane must be evacuated. >> tom -- >> they will spring from their seats and open the doors. the slides will deploy and they will guide passengers out of the plane. and this is -- >> tom, tom, i have to sbrumt you. stand by and listen to this. this is the news conference happening at the airport in san francisco. we don't have video but we do want to listen to the audio. >> 90 name is doug. i'm the public information officer at the airport. y-a-k-e-l-. >> talk about what happened. >> there was an incident involving asiana flight 214. we don't know anything further. i don't have that information. >> fatalities and injuries, could you give us -- >> injured, noninjured. i don't have that.

we're still working on a firm number for how many people -- i don't know the status. i'm sorry. >> walk us through [ inaudible ] how you're dealing with this. the process. >> really the first step is for our first responders to secure the scene. i want to thank the neutral aid respond here's supported the airport in this effort. this is an effort still underway. we're still securing the scene and addressing the passengers on the flight. and again, i don't have exact numbers. >> the flight was coming from seoul, south korea. >> i don't have any information. >> there were reports that the may not may have rolled. is that what happened? >> i'm sorry. i don't know what happened. i don't know that. no, you don't have number on

survivors. can you say there are survivors? >> i don't have a down on the status. i know that people were removed from the plane. i don't have numbers. >> can you talk about air traffic now and where things are being diverted to? >> i don't know where nights are being diverted to but certainly they have diverted. and we are currently not operating any arrivals or departures and we are working to address that. i don't know that information. we're still working on an exact count. >> for those people waiting to receive their loved ones, when he this she go now in. >> we're working on it. if we do get a number for friends and family, we will give that. >> will the airport shut down? >> what are you telling them to do? >> our best advice right now is to check with the airlines for the status of the flight given

that -- >> asiana airlines is establishing a process for that. i don't have those details at this time. >> we're going to wrap it up and meet back here at 3:00 for more information. >> that was the audio of a news conference in san francisco. we're told there will be another news conference from that airport in about an hour. about 6:00. we expect to hear some more. we did not get a whole lot of information. that was the san francisco international airport's public information officer. so essentially, a spokesperson for the airport. they said obviously right now, they are securing the scene. he was not able to give us any

new information on the number of passengers aboard that boeing 777. nor was he able to give us any information, however he did indicate some people were transported. so we don't know whether they were traction ported as a precaution or whether they was transported because they were in fact hurt. san francisco international airport remains closed right now. no arrivals, no departures, flights that were scheduled to land there. many of those flights that were diverted, he encouraged folks who might be expecting to pick up someone from the airport to contact the local airline to find out precisely where that loved one might be. as we approach the top of the hour, as we approach 5:00 in the east, this is probably a good time to set the scene for folks who might just be joining us. again, what you are looking at right now is all that is left of asiana airlines flight 214. it left seoul, south korea

yesterday around 4:15. it was scheduled to land in san francisco around 11:15 this morning when something happen. again, at this point, it is still very early. we don't know exactly. i am told we have a witness via kntv. one of our west coast affiliates. >> i couldn't tell if it was upside down or right side up. so about a minute afterwards -- >> i think we're having a problem with our affiliate, kntv. that was someone who witnessed this thing happening. we heard from an eyewitness an hour, hour and a half ago. someone who was at a nearby hotel. and she told us that she saw the tail of many plane clip the

runway. then flip down the runway several times. saw smoke shortly there after billowing from the fuselage. you're looking at the plane to the left of runway 28. no tail on the plane. fuselage practically burned out. we do know those two emergency chutes, you cannot see it but there were two emergency chutes that deployed on the left side of the plane. we've seen pictures of people going down those chutes. we saw pictures of people leave the plane. we know from folks via social media, that there are survivors. we have every reason to believe the