Asiana Airlines Crash Death Toll At 2, Dozens Injured

An Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport has left at least two people dead and dozens injured after a Boeing 777 cartwheeled across the runway.

There were close to 300 people on board the flight, which was arriving from Seoul, South Korea.

A witness said the tail was torn from the plane after it hit the runway, and as it skidded it rolled over and came to a stop again right-side up.

Video of the Asiana Airlines crash showed a large plume of smoke extending into the sky at San Francisco International Airport. Passengers were seen escaping the plan via inflatable slides.

Initial reports from witnesses said they believed everyone escaped, and that injured were evacuated, but later reports said that two people killed in the plane crash.

The San Francisco Fire Department later confirmed that two passengers were killed and 61 people injured. There were close to 291 people on board at the time of the fire, but FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said they could not confirm the total number of passengers.

The Asiana Airlines crash was seen from far outside the airport.

“You heard a pop and you immediately saw a large, brief fireball that came out from underneath the aircraft,” Anthony Castorani said on CNN. “At that moment, you could see that that aircraft was again starting to lift and it began to cartwheel … You could see the tail immediately fly off of the aircraft,” he said.

Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the Asiana AIrlines crash. The weather was said to be clear at the time of the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board noted on Twitter that it was sending a team to investigate the crash, while the FAA was also sending investigators, spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

There was no word on whether the death toll in the Asiana Airlines crash could rise.