Two Chinese
women aboard an Asiana Airlines flight that crash landed at San Francisco airport
on Saturday have been confirmed dead, according to China's official Xinhua news
agency.
Asiana
Airlines flight 214, a Boeing 777-200 passenger plane flying from Seoul,
crashed upon landing at San Francisco International Airport in California. The
plane partly burst into flames after its tail was torn off.
"We
verified through the foreign ministry that the two dead are Chinese and they
are all women," a senior official at China's Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure and Transport was quoted by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency as
saying.
San
Francisco fire chief Joanne Hayes-White said the 82 people injured, 10 of whom
are in a serious condition, were transported to local hospitals.
Diplomats
with the Chinese consulate general said 141 of the 291 passengers on board were
Chinese citizens, including 70 students and teachers from China's Shanxi
province and east Zhejiang province. Some of the students were reportedly
heading to the US to take part in a summer camp.
It has been
confirmed that none of the students were injured, and they have all gotten in
touch with their parents. One of the teachers escaped with minor injuries.
According
to sources within the Shanghai Pudong International Airport's border inspection
station and Asiana Airlines, more than 90 passengers departed Shanghai on
Asiana Airlines flight OZ362 to Seoul, and then transferred to flight 214 to
San Francisco on Saturday.
An Asiana
Airlines official said there were also 77 South Koreans and 61 Americans aboard
the flight, along with 16 crew.
Xu Da, an
employee from Chinese internet giant Alibaba who was in the crash along with
his wife and child, wrote on his microblog that the plane appeared to suddenly
lift just moments before it was about to land. There was then a loud bang
followed by sparks and a burnt smell inside in the cabin, leading to chaos as
soon as the plane came to a stop. The tail of plane was gone and replaced by a
massive hole, he wrote, adding that he and his family were fortunate to have
only suffered minor cuts and bruises.
Authorities
said there are no indications that terrorism was involved in the incident. The
US Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and Asiana will carry out a joint
investigation into the crash.
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