so we made purina one true instinct. learn more at purinaone.com want to rehe cap right now top of the hour. we continue to follow breaking news in san francisco at the san francisco international airport. asiana airlines flight 214 it trashed around 11:27 local time this morning. two people are dead. 181 hurt. one person still unaccounted for there. right-side of the screen one of the many pictures that we are getting -- that we have gotten in throughout the course of the day. if you look closely in the control room can we bring that picture up full. this is probably the closest picture we have gotten all day. you can see the flames from the

cabin. middle portion of the screen there. flames in the cabin. thick smoke billowing from the top of that boeing 777. we heard are from a news conference we heard in the news conference rather that wrapped up just a short time ago that right now the investigation into precisely how it was that this happened, that investigation has started. we have seen a number of uniformed officers on the ground. about 30 or so at one point combing the runway. combing the grassy areas on both sides of the runway looking for clues at one point. in fact, just a short time ago you also saw you a boat in the water there presumably looking for any additional clues as well. we do at this point based on eyewitness accounts, based on the experts we had in the studio and talked to around the country and also just empirical evidence we have seen the tail on the runway so we do know at some point that massive

aircraft and you can see on the right-side of the screen there, that the massive aircraft, its massive tail lying on its side, the tail is closer to the seawall at this point than it is to the aircraft itself. sources tell nbc news that the pilot did not make a distress call shortly before the crash. so again, at this point we are trying to just sort of piece together what happened. we he have had a number of eyewitnesses. we heard from a person who was on the plane. we will try to hear from him again a short time ago. the first survivor who talked about what it was like being on the plane and when precisely he knew something was wrong because again based on a number of reports, eyewitness, the gentleman we will hear from in just a bit who was inside the cabin, whatever happened aboard the asiana flight it happened very quickly. captain tom bunn has been with

me in the ste studio. flew planes for some 40 years. the 777 came out of the assembly line a little bit after he got out of the flight game. one of the things that has struck me and i assume that it struck you as well, how intact the plane actually i is considering what it went through. >> yeah. it looks like the tail just got ripped off by hitting the seawall which means that the airplane was flying too slow because as everybody knows when you come in for a landing the tail doesn't hit the runway first. the tail was too high up. it is only when the plane is flying too slow that the tail goes down below the level of the gear. the tail got taken off and the rest of the plane slid down the runway interest that point. one interesting shot that i didn't get a chance to mention.

at the very rear of the fuselage you will see a green circular looking thing. that is called the pressure bulkhead. that is what keeps the pressure on the inside of the airplane at the tail area. behind that it is not pressurized. what this shows you is that no one in the cabin -- >> i think we may have just seen it there. i'm not sure. >> no one in the cabin was impacted by hitting the seawall. it was only the tail. >> talk to me about how precisely it would be. we heard from a meteorologist from the weather channel earlier this afternoon. 65 degrees at the time of the landing. partly cloudy. not a foggy day in the bay which is a bit unusual there in the san francisco area sometimes. how would it be that a plane's tail would get that low as it approached for landing?

>> could be only two things. the pilot was not getting the job done flying the airplane or didn't have enough power available with the engines. we had a passenger on the airplane said at the last moment he pushed up the power. apparently the engines were working okay. >> at this point one of two things and this could probably be said for the lion's share of airline accidents unfortunately it is one two of things. either some sort of mechanical malfunction or pilot error because at this point again based on meteorologists, weather was not a factor. so if it is not the elements it has to be one of the two aforementioned. melissa covering another aspect of the story, the injured. dozens were taken to area airports. a phone number you were

trialing to grab as well before the break. let me come to you in a few moments. >> if you have inquiries from korea. 77 people onboard the flight were from korea. korean citizens. if you have an inquiry the number is 080-669-68000. we also have one in the u.s. put that one up as well. 1-800-227-4262. that is if you have questions about anybody on the plane those are the numbers to call. we are told as we have been reporting two fatalities. 181 people were transported to the hospital. some were taken to the airport initially and then transferred to a number of local hospitals in the area are continuing to open their doors. that includes san francisco hospital. seven people were take thereby. en there. san francisco hospital is

san francisco's -- saint francis hospital is san francisco's premier burn treatment facility. we know that passengers were emptied out of the plane very, very quickly. still as we expected there are some burn injuries and we will update you on that as soon as we get more information. san francisco general seems to have gotten the bulk of the patients. they are the only trauma center in the area. transported to that hospital were the more seriously injured people. of those ten patients initially taken in six women, four men, 8 adults and two children all brought in in critical condition. they he also pitched tents outside their e.r. because they were getting less injured people coming in later and they called in extra staff to handle that. >> all right, melissa covering the latest.

i understand that we also have new sound we have gotten in to the newsroom as well. is that right, gus? okay. let's take a listen to that sound. >> we have had 12 people from the plane crash today come to the emergency department at the mills peninsula medical center. 8 adults and 4 adolescents. two patients subsequently discharged from the hospital and two admitted. the remaining 8 are continuing to be evaluated in the emergency department. the injuries sustained are mostly contusions, fractures and abrasions. all 12 are in stable condition. >> you don't have anybody here in critical condition? >> no, we do not. >> what time did they come in? >> they started coming in about 1:00 p.m. the first eight came in and 4:00 p.m. we had an additional four with more minor injuries than the first eight. >> did you anticipate any more victims from the incident?

>> we haven't been told to expect any more at this time but we are prepared if there should be additional patients coming our way. >> happening on a weekend like this, were you able to deal with that number of patients coming in? >> we were. we did staff up in the new jersey department and had an outpouring of staff and physicians volunteering to come in and help so we were adequately staffed to take care of these patients and all of our other patients. >> you are very close to the airport. how soon did you know this happened? did you get notification? >> it we he did know right away. we are three miles from the airport so we are the closest hospital to sfo. >> because of you are the closest, why did so many patients go to san francisco general? >> the highest acuity, most

severe injuries were sent to san francisco general because they are trauma center. >> anything else that you would like to say that we haven't touched upon? >> are you able to tell the victim's race or? >> no, we are subject to confidentialallity laws so can't give that information. >> did you have to bring in interpreters to help you deal with the patients. >> we have a diverse staff so we were able to bring in translators for the languages that the patients were speaking. >> what were those? >> i don't have that information. i do know that we had some korean speaking patients. >> all right. a spokesman there for mills peninsula medical center there. one of the hospitals that the injured have been taken to in the san francisco area. mills peninsula. 8 admitted there including one in surgery. we are also told that right now at least it seems san francisco

general has the largest number of the injured. so far, again, and these numbers are fluctuating, folks. at last check at san francisco general, 27 admitted. 27 admitted. 10 of the 27 are i critical condition at this point. six females, four males including two children. 27 right now at san francisco general. 10 of the 27 are in critical condition. also according to the latest information we are getting here at nbc news and msnbc, 50 of the injured are actually in six different hospitals right now. 50 of the injured in about a half dozen hospitals. so we continue to track which hospitals have how many folks and the extent of those injuries as well. right now we have lee h romney joining me via telephone. with the l.a. times. he is at the airport in

san francisco. i understand you have spoken to witnesss. >> we he did just encounter a couple who they were sitting on the runway adjacent to the asiana runway and they were supposed to be taking off for a flight to japan at 11:15 and then the 777 came hurling down the adjacent runway. the gentleman said it sounded like a sonic boom but then they realized it was an explosion. the flight attendant right next to him had a better view and he could see her face and she kept saying oh, my god. oh, my god. he had taken pictures. he saw the plane start to drop debris. the wings came off. he had a photograph of the tail in its entirety sitting on the

runway. then the smoke started. first light smoke and then it good dark and h heavy. his flight which was united airlines flight was full and passengers were not permitted to leave for about three and a half hours while emergency personnel were doing this and they just sat there as he said everybody was subdued and just hoping for the best for the folks in the plane next door. so beyond that, there are a lot o of folks who saw sort of distant smoke but we have not yet been able to talk to any of the survivors. we understand that some of them are still at the airport. they had them earlier in a room kind of like a meditation room with some red cross personnel and first responders and so on.

leigh, lou close wa how close e plane. >> it was on the adjacent runway and if their plane had one been a little further back he thinks they might have been hit. it was loud and close and images he captured were pretty clear. they were right there. once the chutes deployed and people started coming off he said their view was blocked so they didn't see everything but it is a kind of came down it really sounds like it went pretty much right past them. >> leigh romney with the l.a. times. thank you so much for that. some of those pictures that you mentioned if you could get those to us we would like to share those with the viewers at home. sounds like the person you talked to had quite the vantage point. >> he did. he is promising to send them to me and i would be happy to send them on. >> thank you so much. folks, we will take a quick break. when we come back we will at some point here hear from one of the survivors on the plane

and also pass along the response from the white house on this saturday night. gin, covering the breaking news happening in san francisco. the investigation into precisely how the airplane that you have been looking at, how is went down this morning in san francisco. there is is. or at least what is left of it. ] fight pepperoni heartburn and pepperoni breath fast with tums freshers. concentrated relief that goes to work in seconds and freshens breath. tums freshers. ♪ tum...tum...tum...tum... tums! ♪ fast heartburn relief and minty fresh breath. ♪ honey, is he too into this car thing? [ mumbling ] definitely the quattro. ♪ honey? huh? a5. what? [ sighs ] did you say something? ♪

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welcome back. we continue to follow the breaking news in san francisco. the investigation into asiana flight 214. investigators headed there. ntsb investigators headed there to try and figure out precisely what brought the plane down. that the point we know according to our own tom costello in washington, federal authorities have no reason to believe it was anything sinister. this was not terrorism.

at this point it appears to be just an awful, awful accident. two people are dead. 123 uninjured. 181 taken to the hospital. one person is still unaccounted for. big jump there, we should note. just an hour ago there were 60 people unaccounted for. that the point again just one. we heard from the white house. we heard from the white house a few hours ago. this is from jay carney, white house press secretary. expressedent expressed gratitude for the first responders and directed the team to stay in contact with the federal, state and local responders as they investigate and respond to the event. thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones and all of those affected by the crash. my colleague and friend melissa rayberger has been keeping a close tab on the injured in the hospitals and where they are going. the extent of the injuries. take a quick moment and check

in with melissa. what can you tell us? >> we are being told now that there are 54 people in six different area hospitals. most of them are at san francisco general hospital. they have 27 people admitted. 10 especially are critical. those are six females, four males, that includes two children in critical condition. no more information on them that the point. stanford hospital has one person from the u.s. coast guard who that is for the u.s. coast guard who brought that person in. mill peninsula health center who we just heard from before the break has 12 people admitted. all of them are stable. california pacific medical center has five admitted. all those people have minor injuries. the university of california san francisco has two patients, a man and a woman in stable condition. and saint francis hospital has seven people admitted that is the area premier burn specialist hospital. and also the reason why, craig,

that san francisco general has most of the people is because they are the area's premier trauma center. actually the only one. so everyone who was critical was brought there. >> that would explain that. okay. melissa keeping an eye on the injured for us. thank you so much. brian piper is standing by now as well. brian, i understand that you actually saw the plane go down? or did you see the aftermath? which one? >> well, i was in my hotel room across the water here staying at marriott. i have a half a mile view of the runway. and i heard a boom. and that is when i turned around and looked out the window and i saw the plane tumbling and when i say tumbling the nose was down in the dirt. the tail was up in the air and the plane was kind of doing an acrobatic twist. and that is when i saw the plane come to a rest and land. there was a lot of dirt in the air. and i thought it landed on the

top but it didn't. it landed with the belly down. >> so again, you actually saw the nose of the plane go into the dirt? >> yeah, it is like the plane was doing a flip flop or a somersault. the nose was down, tail up in the air. i mean it was bad. i knew something was wrong. i mean people were going to be injured. it was really a traumati traumc event. >> did the plane flip? did you see the plane actually flip? or you saw it come back down on its belly? >> i thought it flipped. when i saw the tail go down in the air, the nose go down and when the plane came to a rest i couldn't tell which side landed 77. landed up. it was only after the plane settled and dust had gone away i could see the exits, with the ramps coming off the side where people were coming out.

i was like okay, i guess the plane landed the correct side up. >> did you see the tail clip the seawall? >> no. the part of the runway or the part of the crash that i saw was probably a good i would say maybe a quarter mile down the runway. it had to have gone maybe an eighth of a mile, quarter of a mile before i saw the plane tumbling. >> what did you see after that the? after the plane finally stopped this tumble? >> well, i -- surprisingly i did not see a lot of smoke. the plane was not on fire. there were no flames. it was smoke -- i saw a little bit of smoke coming out the front and within two minutes i mean i was already taking pictures. i saw people coming out the back of the plane and walking down the runway towards the far end of the runway where the plane landed. >> the people that you saw, i assume these are the same folks that used the inflatable chutes

to get off the plane. orderly? were they walking orderly? were they running? could you tell? >> yeah, i could tell. that is the surprising thing. the people were walking orderly. and when i say they were walking and i was really shocked. i was like why are those people walking away from the plane. i was like well, they are probably in shock but it seemed like there was a line of people stretched out walking down the runway but i was like i wonder how many people that is. seemed to be like a hundred people. could be more but it just didn't seem like a capacity plane which i had just come in on. i haded come in on a 747. i was like there has got to be hundreds of people in there. >> again, the smoke that you saw nothing like the smoke that i'm sure you have seen on tv since. nothing like the smoke that we have been showing the viewers. it didn't look that bad after the plane rested is that what you are saying? >> no, i'm saying they got the fire out within five minutes the early responders got there

and they sprayed foam and water probably all foam on the plane and it look like the fire was out within between five to ten minutes and this is when they stopped spraying the plane and i figured okay, great, they did a good job and moved in and the fire was out for awhile. and then the black smoke started. the really thick black smoke which i assume was a raging fire. >> okay, brian piper again an eyewitness to this. i got to ask you as you saw all this go down outside your hotel window at the marriott what is going through your head? >> i was -- i mean i was trying to hold my camera straight. i was shaking. i was mike oh, my god there are people in there. my first reaction was can i go help them and there is no way. i'm across the bay here and i felt so sorry for those people.

i just wanted to help them. >> it sounds like help did get there, though fairle fairly qu. >> yes, i would give credit to the first responders. they were there within, i mean three minutes. i was like i hope they get the job done and save some people. >> brian piper. thank you so much. one of the eyewitnesses who again saw the plane shortly after and it sounds like while it was crash landing at san francisco international airport this morning. a big thanks too touch the runway you. knowwell -- to you. noelle is standing across the bay from the airport. has the scene changed from your vantage point at all? >> reporter: no. let's push in so you can see what is happening behind me. the plane is still there. not going anywhere any time soon. we still see emergency vehicles. the bright kind of yellowish green ones parked around it.

i will also take you kind of on a sweep over to the right. so you get a sense of how the impact how far separated the plane became interest it from . the tail section is right there. a little red piece sticking up from this. that is what multiple eyewitnesses reported seeing come down low and clipped the seawall and sheared off the plane with some amount of force and then the plane continued down the runway until it looks like it maybe skidded off the runway quite a distance down from where it was separated from its tail at initial impact. still emergency crews on the scene. worth noting as you said during the media conference they do not believe this is terrorism and do not believe it is any criminal act but you we don't know what happened. >> for folks who are not familiar with presizely how this -- precisely how this airport is laid out and precisely how this particular runway is laid out, can you

give us a sense of kind of the sort of the area where this airport is located in the san francisco bay? >> so sfo, san francisco international airport is not actually in the city of san francisco. it is located in san mateo county just south of san francisco city limits. if you have ever flown in here, when you fly in, you have this sense that you might be handing on -- landing on the water when you fly in. it is because those runways kind of jut out from the land and into the water. we were watching as just as we were beginning to take off and land after the airport had been closed for hours and it looked like the first plane coming in was going to land on the water because from the vantage point where i'm at you couldn't see there was a runway right there. so, the runways come out into the water. there are four of them. there are only two runways operating right now and that is because of the plane crash.

>> noelle walker thank you so much for your work there again in the bay across from the airport which again is not in san francisco. it is in san mateo county. thank you so much. we will come back to you a little bit later. folks, he w we will take a quik break here and reset after this. also starting to hear from some of the members of the oversight committees with regards to aviation in this country. we will hear from them, after this. so... [ gasps ]

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folks, we continue to follow the breaking news there in san francisco. the crashing of flight 214 asiana flight 214. you are looking at what is left of that plane. you are look at the two emergency inflatable chutes that we have been talking about. the chutes that folks use too get off the plane. at this point, two people are dead. dozens more are injured. at this point, 181 have been

taken to the hospital. one person is still unaccounted for. we have just gotten i understand the recording or a recording from air traffic control. we are going to play this for you in its entirety. we think it runs about three minutes. this is the air traffic control recording from the tower. it was taken around the time that flight 214 came in. take a listen to this. 214. san francisco. >> 5427. runway in contact. >> go ahead flight. >> united 85. >> 85. we might need a few more minutes. just a h heads up. >> hold short of runway. let me know when you are ready.

>> san francisco 5452. vizquelual. >> 5452 san francisco entire runway. right clear lane. >> 5452. >> 737 -- 500 feet, please. over. >> sky link 6389 from 183000. >> i have an emergency. vehicles are responding. >> emergency. >> okay. >> 737. remain clear. contact san carlos tower. contacting san carlos tower. >> helicopter three is here

processing. >> airport is closed. 214 heavy. san francisco tower. >> 635 come in? >> maintain 3,100. >> 265. 3,100. >> heavy. emergency vehicles responding. we have everyone on their way. 5452. san francisco tower. go around. >> 5450. >> sky lift 5450. maintain 3,000. >> 5452. >> 635. flight 635 maintain 3,100. 3,100 for 635. >> 351. as. >> sky link 5452. >> 30.1.

>> we will go to san jose. >> roger. and contact. >> sky link 6389. 33 san francisco south. >> that is the 11. proceed as requested. crossover. >> cleared to one. >> rescue 33. reesrescue 11, roger. >> what you have just been listening to there is three minutes and some change actually three minutes worth of air traffic control traffic around the time, around the time flight 214 was crash landing at san francisco international airport around 11:27 local time this morning. dan rose has joined us here. dan rose is an aviation expert. a pilot. an attorney as well. has spent some time also i understand trying cases

involving boeing. would that be an accurate characterization? >> that would be an accurate characteristickization. >> start with what we just heard on the tape there's. anything jump out at you? >> the lack of any kind of warning or emergency call or any kind of request for assistance. so, you know, i think you can decipher from that that there wasn't any inflight emergency that the crew was aware of and trying to deal with. >> in cases like this how surprising is something like that that there was not? again, we heard from sources telling nbc news there was not an emergency call made by the pilot to air traffic control. is that surprising or is that some what customary? >> depending on the emergency i guess. >> it certainly would be surprising if there was some kind of a mechanical failure or mechanical problem with the plane that there wasn't a call.

if there was something more inocuous or something that they he didn't report that would be unordinary and very troubling. >> captain, what struck you? >> the only new piece of information that i got and i was asking about earlier was there any one handing on the -- landing on the 28 right runway and, yes, there was. what happens when you come into an airport like atlanta the runways are spaced wide enough apart that planes can land even abreast each other because the runways are so far apart. sfo not so, they are very close. in order foreplans to land at the same -- for planes to land at the same time on the two runways they have to have contact with each other. they ask you then when you are

landing and another airplane is close to you, you are supposed to maintain visual contact. the only other thing i think that might explain something. distracted by trying to keep the other airplane in sight. don't know. >> dan, let's talk about what we do know at this point. one of the things we know is what we see on the screen there, the left side of the screen. we know that the tail at some point became detached from the boeing 777. there have been a number of eyewitnesses. also other reports confirmed and unconfirmed that the tail itself somehow clipped the seawall on approach. have you seen anything like this before? >> i have but it has been in naval aviation when you are trying to land on the back of a carrier where a normal approach is about 11 feet distance between the hook of the plane and the deck. here, of course, with the commercial airliner you are supposed to land a thousand

feet down the runway which is significantly much more height when you are crossing the area right by the sea wall. the answer is no, you should never be that close in a commercial jet to the seawall where the tail or even the landing gear may have been the part of the plane that contacted the sea wall. >> dan rose, aviation expert and lawyer. john cox. excuse me. captain tom bunn. 40 years a pilot. we will take a quick break and when we come we will spend more time with you. i will check back with melissa keeping a close eye on the number of injured and the extent of the injuries and which hospitals they are being taken to to. this is msnbc. we continue to follow breaking news at san francisco international airport. the crashing of asiana airlines flight 214. was definitely wo.

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welcome back. we continue to follow the breaking news in san francisco as the investigation into precisely what happened to asiana flight 214 as the investigation begins. again, the plane that you are looking at right now crashed -- crash landed at the san francisco international airport sometime around 11:27 local time this morning. dan rose is in the studio with me. and captain tom bunn. 40 years. aviation expert. you fly for 40 years you become an expert. >> have to learn something in that time. >> dan rose also a military pilot and now an attorney. i understand that you represent victims' families in crashes like this. before i ask you this question we should note here for the viewers at home that the ntsb has sent a full-go team. the investigation has started. we don't know officially what caused this particularly crash, we won't know for six months at

the earliest. in cases like the ones in which you have been involved in cases like this, typically what happens? typically who is to blame? what is to blame? pilot error? mechanical failures? things like that. >> sure. each crash is different. >> sure. >> factually and causatively and so there is no set answer. if you look at it statistically, certainly pilot error seems to be a predominant factor. but what is important i think in every analysis of a plane crash and particularly commercial plane crashes like these that are very complicated are the chain of events that lead up to it. it is not always, you know, one single cause like pilot error or weather or mechanical failure. often times it is a chain of events that combines to end up with the final crash so you could have pilot error part of it. a design issue.

the interaction of the flight crew with the systems onboard the plane is a very important issue these days. >> speak to that. what exactly -- >> it is automation. everything is getting computerized and everything is being run by machines and computers and aviation is no different. the leading edge often times and you have the fundamental issue of how is the pilot going to interact with the systems onboard the plane. and that plays a big role in a lot of the recent plane crashes that we have seen. for instance, the buffalo plane crash up in upstate new york. there was an issue there at least in part with how the pilot interacted with the automated systems onboard the plane and you could certainly see something like that happening here. >> and these systems and again you don't have to be a pilot. any one who flies can look into the cockpit and see the system

that they are using, it is pretty complex. >> sure. >> and evolving constantly as well. >> it is. obviously the flight crews are very trained. they don't look into the cockpit and say gee what does that do. they know what it does. that may not be enough all the time because you is to design a system so that it thinks or the pilot is able to understand what the system is doing and you have a matching of the intent between the pilot and the system. if that intent is not matched then you are open to all kinds of problems. >> captain, i would imagine the cockpit not to be presumous here. i don't know how old you are but if you flew for 40 years you saw some changes. i would imagine the cockpits that you saw at the beginning of your flying career versus the cockpits that you saw you toward the end of your flying career were dramatically different. >> went from round dials to what they call the glass

cockpit where everything is crt or synthesized. and the thing i'm thinking about as he is speaking is the airbus design which becomes even more automated where you don't move the controls in the cockpit and move a control on the wing. you simply make a request to the computer. and there is where you can get into some really interesting questions about the intent of the pilot versus the intent of the computers. >> i want to spend some time in a second here. i want to check in with miss m. melissa. i want to talk about when a pilot is landing a boeing 777 is it more the pilot landing the plane or more of the computers you were talking about? think about that for a moment. i want to bring in melissa who continues to monitor the injured, the hospitals where they are being taken and the extent of the injuries. i understand we are starting to get reaction from capitol hill? >> we are. we have just heard from the

committee on commerce, science and transportation which aviationthe federal administration and national transportation safety board which will be responsible for investigating how this happened. we received a statement from the chairman john d. rockefeller who says my thoughts with the passengers and crew of asiana flight 214 and first responders on the scene in san francisco. i'm in contact with the ntsb and faa as they examine the incident and i will continue to monitor the situation closely as it unfolds. that is from chairman john d. rockefeller. we have also been hearing from the airline itself that is saying that they -- as i find this actually here it is. they are headquartered in seoul. and this is a statement from the airline itself. as far as asiana is concerned, they are investigating the cause of the accident. they have not yet received any official information from aviation authorities or government authorities so cannot confirm casualties that

the point as no details have been very sided. they will closely -- provide. they will cooperate with the investigation by authorities. at this time asiana are only saying that they are investigating the cause of the accident. we have from the south korean government, who is vowing support to the u.s. government and all authorities who are actively involved in investigating this incident. also vowing cooperation are the manufacturers of the aircraft itself, boeing, and prat and whitney, who manufactured the engines of this 777 aircraft that crash-landed earlier today. >> milissa rehberger, keeping an eye on the hospitals for us. milissa, big thanks to you. and again, folks, we continue to follow breaking news in san francisco. two dead, some 181 people taken to the hospital. there were 307 people aboard that asiana flight 214. we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. it with tums freshers. concentrated relief that goes to work in seconds

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you're watching msnbc, as we continue to cover the breaking news in san francisco, the crashing of asiana flight 214. i want to go now to our reporter, who is as close to the scene as we can get right now, i understand. there you are. noelle walker, i want to bring you back into the conversation here, because we've spent the last couple of hours kind of going back and forth to you out there. have you noticed any changes in activity on the runway there?

>> reporter: no, i have to say, craig, i have not. let's go over there, so you can see just behind me, what we're looking at. we really have a good vantage point of where this flight, asiana flight 214 landed. and then, again, if we take a little sweep off to the right, you'll get some sense of the impact that this plane hit. because the tail end of the plane is quite a distance away from the fuselage, and multiple eyewitnesss said this plane was coming in very, very low. that it appeared the tail had clipped the seawall, which jets out into the water here, and it has the runway in between. that would be very early for the plane to be coming in, to hit that runway. it should be coming in quite a bit down, further down the runway. but witnesses said it appeared that the tail clipped the seawall and then it sheared off. so the impact sheared the tail from the plane. the rest of the plane, the fuselage, continued to slide forward on the runway.

and it looks to be sitting off into the dirt right now. there are still emergency crews over there right now, but no activity, no water, no foam, none of that. all of that has passed. in fact, we've heard planes taking off and landing here in the last couple of hours, as san francisco international airport is back up and running in a limited capacity right now. >> yeah, noelle walker, thank you so much for that. and again, four runways there at san francisco international. we heard a short time ago that two of those runways are open. no word yet on when that airport is going to be back at full capacity, if you will. but noelle, big thanks to you. right now, folks, to update you, for folks that just might be joining our coverage, two people are dead, 181 taken to nearby hospitals after that plane crashed around 11:27 local time in san francisco. the plane originated in shanghai. there was a stop ovover in seou south korea.

and again, it was set to around at around 11:15 when something went terribly, terribly wrong. and whatever happened, we know that it happened pretty quickly. we're going to reset here. we're going to bring our pilots back and talk about what may have happened in that cockpit right after this. iece dining sen clearance, save over $49! how bout all these bikes on rollback? like this mongoose adult bike, you save over $20! get more summer for your money at walmart's super summer savings event. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. mmmhmmm...everybody knows that. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller? your word is...cow. cow. cow. c...o...w... ...e...i...e...i...o. [buzzer] dangnabbit. geico. fifteen minutes could save you...well, you know.

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welcome back. i'm craig melvin. you're watching msnbc, as we continue to follow the breaking news that has been unfolding in san francisco throughout the day. let's take a look back at this breaking news story, as it unfolded today. at 11:27 pacific time, 2:27 here on the east coast, asiana flight 214 crashed on landing at san francisco's international airport. the boeing 777 was arriving from shanghai via seoul, south korea, where the airline is based. as they rushed to the scene of the smoking aircraft, som