An Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea, has crashed while landing at San Francisco airport, US federal aviation officials have said.
It was not immediately known whether there were any injuries.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said on Saturday it was flight number 214, and it was unclear how many people were on board.
The Boeing 777 was supposed to land on runway 28 left at the San Francisco International Airport, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. Brown said the crash occurred at 11:26 PDT.
She said the sequence of events was still unclear, but it appeared the plane landed and then crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board says it’s sending a team of investigators headed by its Chairman Deborah Hersman to San Francisco to probe the crash.
An international satellite TV station correspondent, said that investigators were already on their way to the airport to investigate the incident.
All flights have been suspended at the airport, she said.
Images from television station KTVU in San Francisco showed extensive fire damage to the airplane, which had lost its tail in the crash.
Fire engines were on scene and the fire, which had burned through the cabin’s roof, appeared to be out.
A video clip posted to YouTube shows smoke coming from a silver-colored jet on the tarmac and passengers could be seen jumping down the inflatable emergency slides.
Television footage showed debris strewn about the tarmac and pieces of the plane lying on the runway.
Fire trucks had sprayed a white fire retardant on the wreckage.
The aviation agency said it did not know how many people were onboard the plane, but the airline’s website says its Boeing 777 can carry between 246 to 300 passengers.
The twin-engine aircraft is one of the world’s most popular long-distance planes, often used for flights of 12 hours or more.
Asiana is a South Korean airline, second in size to national carrier Korean Air. It has recently tried to expand its presence in the United States, and joined the OneWorld alliance, anchored by American Airlines and British Airways.
