horror in san francisco. a packed plane from south korea crash lands and becomes a fireball on the runway. >> the sound was pretty loud and the landing was pretty hard and we knew something had gone wrong. >> the plane was going up and down, and then it flipped or something like that. i'm not sure. and then it hit the ground. >> today the mourning for the dead and the search for what went wrong on asia na airlines, flight 214. hello, everyone. welcome to a early special edition. here's what's going on at this hour.

two people are dead, scores injured. there were 307 people on board. that includes 291 passengers and 16 crew members. everyone is now accounted for. sources tell nbc news the plane apparently hit the lip of the seawall that apparently separates the sea from san francisco bay. it land landed and skidded before coming to rest. the entire tail of the jumbo jet was broken off and the top of the fuselage completely burned away. flight 214 was operate by asia na airlines. it stopped in seoul before stopping in san francisco. officials are going to hold a news conference later this morning, but right now let's go to jong yang. a very early morning to you. we thank you for the early morning wakeup. what can you tell us about the investigation that happened? >> well, alex, that

investigation has begun. investigators of the nags tiona transportation safety board arrived here yesterday to figure out what exactly happened. the black box, the data recorders that perform all the data of the -- record all the movement of all the instrumentes have been recovered. they'll be sent back to washington for review. that way they can figure out exactly what happened, what was going on in that aircraft at the time of this accident. we do know that during this 10 1/2-hour flight from seoul to san francisco, the pilot reported no issues. he had not reported any sort of problems or declared any sort of emergency before he tried to land on that runway behind me. it's hard to make out. passengers on board said they felt like they were coming in too low.

and, indeed, it looked like the aircraft was about to set down well short of the runway, the tail hitting the seawall beyond the end of the runway and then skidding down the pavement before coming to rest at the end of the -- in a field on the side of the runway. the tail structure broke off on the way. the landing gear was lost, so it broke off along the way. there was a whole debris field tracing the aircraft's path down the runway and off the runway to the side and this will all go into the investigation that has already begun, alex. >> all right, john. what do we know about the two passengers that were killed? >> reporter: the south korean government is reporting that they are two teenaged women from china. that's about all we know. they're withholding the names until they can contact their

families in china. that is all we know, that their bodies were found outside the aircraft, apparently thrown from the aircraft when the tail section broke off. >> so they were then presumably sitting toward the back of the plane. we are told there were a couple of student groups traveling from china. a tragedy indeed. any updates on the injured, john, people taken to area hospitals? >> reporter: we know there are a number of hospitals, five hospitals in all in the bay area that are taking care of the injured ranging from hospitals in san francisco to stanford university hospital down peninsula. there are about four dozen who are still hospitalized, we understand. it's hard to get a grip on the conditions because some hospitals are not released details about the patients. we do know there are five in critical condition at san francisco general where it appears some of them with

serious injuries were taken. one of those in critical condition, we understand, is a small child. >> okay. john yang thank you very much for that report from san francisco international airport. meanwhile, everyone. eyewitness accounts are giviing us the magnitude of the crash. there are stunning pictures. joining me now is brian piper. brian took those pictures. he also shot video. brian, thank you for waking up and joining with us. i'd like to you where you were, what you were doing and what you were hearing as the plane made impact on the runway. >> well, alex, i was across the water at the marriott which is about a half mile from the runway. i was sitting in my hotel room on the fourth floor and i heard a boom. i knew something was wrong. i immediately turned around and saw the aircraft tumbling nose down. it's like the nose of the plane

was in the dirt and the tail was up in the air and it was kind of twisting at the same time, and that's when it came to rest in a big duftball where it's still at right now. >> that's got to be shocking. what goes through your mind when you see something like that? >> i was just shocked at first. but i mean i immediately knew people are dieing in there and i had a much more grim view of what i thought was going to happen to all those people and just thank god most of them got out. >> yeah, absolutely. so, brian, you didn't see the low -- the reports, rather, of the plane flying low. your first visual contact was once you heard the boom, presumably once it had already hit the seawall? >> yeah. that's what presume the boom was when i initially heard it and turned it around and saw it tumbling. >> people were describing it as cartwheeling which you would think end over end but it wasn't

quite that dramatic by your description? >> it was that dramatic. the end part that i saw is when the nose was going pretty much down into the dirt, tail almost up in the air, kind of doing a twisting motion, it wasn't a complete end over end and it almost did. >> brian, i heard some reports that people were complaining about the length of time that it took for first respoblders, particularly fire trucks to put out the fire. those also from people who were onboard that plane. you can imagine their judgment might be a little bit skewed given the stress they were under. do you have a sense of how long it took for fire trucks and emergency trucks to get on the scene? >> yeah. i thought if first responders did a great job. i estimated four to five minutes when i saw the first fire trucks, and by then i had seen a steady stream of people coming out the back of the aircraft.

>> really? so they came out of the area that had been shirred off as opposed to coming down the emergency chutes or jumping down the chutes? >> they were existing toward the rear. i thank came out the chutes but walked down the runway in a pretty calm single-file line. i didn't see anybody running. >> that's extraordinary. when responders first got on the scene, it was probably a scene of absolute chaos. how long were you watching that? >> i was watching it the entire time. the first responders got water and foam on the plane. they got the fire out and the plane had stopped smoking between five to ten minutes, that mark, and i was shocked when after about ten minutes, that's when i saw the black smoke start up and the real fire began. >> oh.

interesting. that's when we take a look at the top of the fuselage, that's been burned entirely away. so when the plane first landed, the top was still intact and the fire in the fuselage didn't happen until after the crash? >> that's correct. the first pictures i took was just a dustball. it was orange. >> i saw that. i thought that was dust and fire. that's just dust? >> it was duff. the fire started about 45, 60 seconds after the crash. it wasn't much. a few minutes later is when the first responders showed up, and they had put the fire out. >> i've got to ask. you were there close to the airport. are you there because you're traveling and plan to get on a flight any time soon? what goes through your mind if you are? >> yeah. that really hit home. i had come in from a flight from tokyo a few hours before.

i could have been on that flight. especially when i heard this plane came from asia. i felt for those people. >> it goes through your mind. i have to get on a plane myself later today, so it certainly gives you pause for consideration. brian piper, thank you very much for your excellent photos and your story. the focus now moves to finding out why this happens. nbc's tom costello covers aviation and he's at dulles airport this morning. what are they telling you about the investigation? >> reporter: well, the ntsb go team is already on the scene and overnight in terrell morning hours in san francisco they were already going through the wreckage of flight 214. the good news, as john yang reported, they already recovered the flight data. the black boxes were critical. they were concerned whether they would survive the crash because they were in the tail of the

plane, and they did. now they're going to be looking what exactly was on all of the flight data information, what does it say about the glide slope, the ride to ascent. what was going on insight the cockpit. what were the conversations between the pie let and co-pilot before the crash. if, in fact, this plane did come in far too low as it appears and slam its tail on the seawall barrier, a lot of questions why it would happen. was it because of pilots not paying attention? did they have bad da tarks faulty piece of electronics? were the engines working properly? this is already a critical question. the president of asiana says they were veteran pilots. the ntsb has not gotten in the middle of these engines yet. it will take many, many days to

look at the engines and the flight data before they can ascertain if there was any sort of an engine problem. then it leads you to believe, did the airlines have kmup indication with their pilots? have they said something? have they communicated what happened? a lot of questions are going to be on the tips of investigators' minds as they begin this process, and this will be a thorough meticulous process, alex. they will look at everything from the engines to the aircraft struck tour to how the pilots performed inside, how about the flight aten damts? what about the egress, how quickly did they get out of the plane. why did so many people survive the crash. the fire rescue response. all of this will be part of the investigation because not only do they want to find out what caused the crash but hopefully is there anything they can do, we can do better in the feature in the event there's another one

of these horrific accidents. >> tom costello, thank you for shedding light on what's going to happen next. we appreciate that. joining me from the white house is kristchris chris kristen wel. the white house released a statement saying he was breefd by husband down pcounter zwlooirjtsz by his by his counterterrorism expert. they continue to respond and investigate the plane crash landing in san francisco. i'll read you just a little bit of the statement that the white house put out last night, alex. it says, quote, the president's thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost a loved

one and those affected by the crash. so obviously a somber time for all of the families impacted but also for those in washington as well who are investigating what happened and for the white house. now president obama is expected to return back. i anticipate he'll be back sometime this morning. he's with the entire first family. i expect he'll get briefed throughout the day as the ntsb continues its investigation. >> thank you very much, kristen. we appreciate that. more on flight 214. how possible sit it could be pilot error and how safe is the boeing plane? we're going to hear from aviation specialists next. but after one day's use, dishcloths can redeposit millions of germs. so ditch your dishcloth and switch to a fresh sheet of new bounty duratowel. look! a fresh sheet of bounty duratowel leaves this surface cleaner than a germy dishcloth, as this black light reveals.

it's durable, cloth-like and it's 3 times cleaner. so ditch your dishcloth and switch to new bounty duratowel. the durable, cloth-like picker-upper. when you experience something great, you want to share it. with everyone. that's why more customers recommend verizon, america's largest 4g lte network.

we have new news to share with the air crash. >> you see some smoke coming

out, but the fire happened much later. i couldn't see any fire in the back of the plane, and by the time i went out for the phones, i saw more smoke. the beginnings of it and the firemen were already on the spot. >> the team for the national transportation safety board is already on the scene. we're getting more images from the crash scene. right now there are two confirmed fatalities, several taken to the hospital. at last count about four dozen remain in the hospital. joining me from boston, paul mccarthy. let's take what the president said in a presser this morning they think there is no engine defect. first up is it too early to say that definitively, but overall how safe is the 777 boeing. >> let's go to the pressing question. that aircraft has a fabulous

safety record. i flew the thing myself and it is a spectacular engineering achievement. it's a very safe aircraft. i think about the track record of how many there are, how often they fly, and nothing really happens ever with the 777. it's a remarkable safe aircraft. going back to engines, these planes tend to record the condition in flight. so the minute tense may have had preliminary information. you're exact. until they look at the recorders and the actual engines themselves, we're not going to know the story. >> paul, interesting there were no distress calls put forward. what does that tell me? >> we're taught in the aviation business, aviate, fly the airplane, navigate, figure out where you're going, and finally,

communicate. the fact that there are no distress calls tells me something happened a thousand feet below the aprove. >> when you say a thousand feet on approach, how long are we talking from 1,000 feet and putting wheels on the ground? >> oh, 35, 40 seconds. >> when you're coming in fast like that, it's a heavy plane certainly, the fact that that's on an auto pilot or auto landing or the pilot is doing it themselves, can the plane be automatically landed without pilot intervention? >> it can but in that particular runway, that particular approach, on a day like that without any weather out there, it probably would not have been auto landed. the auto throttles would have been controlling the speed but i would anticipate the pilots would have been commanding the flight path. >> okay. let's say the pilot realizes, uh-oh, we are too low.

what can one do in this 30, 35 seconds you're talking about? is there anything that can be successfully done to correct that? obviously in this case if they bachl aware of it it could be successful. but could you? >> oh, yeah. all you have to do is put the power up and have a change of trajectory. i believe there were witnesses inside the aircraft that just before the plane hit they did hear the engines accelerate. but it may have been too late. >> that's what they were trying to do. but what does that do, get it up enough to get it over the lip of the seawall or do you worry about actually starting to take off and lild lift off again? you can control, that right? >> the mayor correction given where this airplane ended up i would anticipate the airplane would have abandoned the approach and come back and try

again. >> give us an idea of the fuel on the plane. you've flown all the way across the south pacific at this point. how much fuel is going to be left in the 777? >> quite a bit. probably -- that's a calculation i'm hesitant to make, but you eefrd have 20,000 pounds of fuel respectively. >> how much would it have taken off with? >> about 200,000 pounds of fuel. >> what is it like flying at san francisco international airport and what are the precautions take? we're going to hear from a former airline pilot ahead. with centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters.

with custom communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. every day of the week. centurylink® your link to what's next. are you kidding me? no, it's only 15 calories. [ male announcer ] with reddi wip, fruit never sounded more delicious. mmm. [ male announcer ] with 15 calories per serving and real cream, the sound of reddi wip is the sound of joy.

the protests in egypt are pretty quiet but the p. just hours later the appointment was squashed reportedly due to an islamist party's rejection.

joining me now is p.j. crawley. a welcome to you. mohammed el brady, he's someone very familiar to the united states government. was he someone with whom the united states would have hoped to work? >> well, there are two issues here. one is el bare die is very well known to the international community. he does not have a strong political constituency within egypt and obviously that's at the heart of the disagreement as to who should take over as prime minister. the confusion that's out there, they say it's someone known to tib ter national community and then, wham, that gets pulled. what does that say? >> it's a disaster.

it's the woift possible step for tin trim government. clearly the interim president had offered the job to elbaradei. they were prepared to make the announcement and then the newest party which had supported the military intervention this week, they said, if he's selected, we're going to withdraw from the roadmap. it's a kumbaya moment, let's unify for the service of egypt but what you realize here is this is the same challenge that has plagued the opposition for two years. they were only unified by their opposition to morsi. >> so do you think this is a communication or do you think they'll get their feet on the ground and solidly set forward a path? >> it remains to be seen. the muslim brotherhood gets to play as well.

that's a dilemma for the interim brotherhood because so far they refuse to recognize the authority of the government and so what the military was trying to do with its ultimatum and then stepping in was to stay to all political factions you've got to come together, work this out, work for the benefit of the country. what we're hearing is that's a tall proposition. >> the former president mohamed morsi, again, democratically elected by the people a year ago headlined the news. morsi spurned deals, seeing military as tamed. what did he do wrong? >> obviously the muslimborough hood had been under huge pressure from mubarak. they would do everything to entrench themselves in the government. he governed narrowly, not

widely, but the brotherhood got to be encouraged by this did sense with the opposition and it will be that much more difficult for the interim government to engage them and bring them back into the political process and say, hey, you've got an opportunity to compete here but you've got to be part of the coalition. if they don't come together, then the muslim brotherhood will only be encouraged. >> we invite all of you to "meet the press" this morning for david gregory's interview with mohamed elbaradei. more on the crash landing at san francisco international airport. we have a live investigation next. they will. it's a steak-over. steak was excellent. very tender. melts in your mouth. it was delicious. tonight you are eating walmart steak. what???!! good steak. two thumbs up?

look, i ate all of mine. it matches any good steakhouse if not better. walmart choice premium steak in the black package. it's 100% money back guaranteed. try it for your next backyard barbecue. aren't always the most obvious. take the humble stevia plant, with a surprising secret to share: sweetness. truvia sweetener. zero-calorie sweetness, born from the stevia leaf. from nature, for sweetness. lovely read susan. may i read something? yes, please. of course. a rich, never bitter taste cup after cup. 340 grams. [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] always rich, never bitter. gevalia.