[Victor Blackwell, Cnn Anchor:] And that is where we begin this NEW DAY SUNDAY. Live from San Francisco on the crash of flight 214.
[Unidentified Male:] The back end is hit and flies up in the air, and everybody but Ted goes up to the ceiling.
[Pamela Brown, Cnn Anchor:] Well, the crash was fatal, it seems a miracle that more didn't die. You'll hear one survivor's terrifying story.
[Victor Blackwell, Cnn Anchor:] And as more images and more answers emerge, there's still the question, who's responsible? A former transportation chief says she has the answer.
[Brown:] Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Pamela Brown.
[Blackwell:] I'm Victor Blackwell. 6:00 here on the East Coast, 3:00 in San Francisco. Thanks for starting this NEW DAY with us.
[Brown:] And we start our special coverage this morning in San Francisco, and that's where an Asiana Airlines flight bounced down a runway and burst into flames. At least two people are dead and nearly 200 others are injured.
[Blackwell:] Yes, some had just bumps and bruises, but others are in critical condition this morning. We know that there were some people with spinal injuries and there's a huge range that come in that category. There's one child from that flight that was in critical condition, still in critical condition. Miguel Marquez joins us live from the San Francisco International Airport. Miguel, good morning. What do we know?
[Miguel Marquez, Cnn Correspondent:] Yes, good morning. The CEO of Asiana Airlines saying that it was not engine failure for this plane, leaving the obvious, that perhaps there was human error that happened here. We also know that some of the survivors were found in the water of this accident and the flight crew on this plane actually asked some of the emergency responders for knives so they could cut people loose from their seats.
[Marquez:] 11:34 a.m., Asiana Flight 214 had been in the air just over 10 hours. Passengers report the pilot increased engine power seconds before crashing.
[Elliott Stone, Passenger On Flight 214:] It seemed like we were a little bit high and, like, we could see the tarmac down below us and so we were coming down kind of sharp. And then, right when it started to coast, like for the landing, all of a sudden the engine all
[Marquez:] The plane's tail struck the sea wall at the very start of the runway 28 left. The tail disintegrated, the engine on the left wing disappeared. The plane whipping sideways across the runway. Witnesses report hearing an explosion, then a large fireball. The plane's fuselage, mostly intact, finally came to a stop. The right engine next to the fuselage, smoking.
[Stone:] The back end was hit, flies up in the air and everybody's head goes up to the ceiling and then it just kind of drifted for a little bit, probably a good 300 yards, then tips over, the fire starts. Everybody's, you know, pushing the doors out.
[Marquez:] From the violent landing, passengers started to emerge. On this video, shot by a witness in the terminal, you can see the plane's emergency chutes deployed and people using them to get off the plane. And in this video from passenger David Yoon, a Samsung executive, it shows people, some of them even holding on to their bags, as they staggered from the plane. His tweet is shocking as the incident itself "I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Everyone seems fine. I'm OK. Surreal." Witnesses shocked that anyone could survive.
[Unidentified Male:] Just pancaked immediately. And then it just kept sliding and sliding and sliding and then it finally stopped and you could see how the fuselage had kept buckling and buckling many times. I'm surprised it didn't come apart altogether. And it was unreal.
[Marquez:] Helicopter pictures show the trail of destruction, the impact on the stone embankment at the runway's beginning. One set of landing gear, wheels. The plane stabilizers, the very tip of the tail, debris from the plane littering the runway. Officials say there was no sign of trouble before the plane crashed. The weather, ideal, a clear day. All traffic using visual flight rules to land.
[Tower:] Asiana 214 San Francisco tower
[Marquez:] Air traffic controllers can be heard guiding in Asiana 214 and then you can hear others in the room alerting to the crash and the stress in the voice of the air traffic controller as the emergency unfolds.
[Tower:] What happened over there?
[Marquez:] Air traffic controllers continue talking to the pilot of the now crashed Asiana 214, assuring the pilot that emergency personnel are responding.
[Tower:] Asiana 214, heavy emergency vehicles are responding. We have everyone on their way.
[Marquez:] Passenger Elliott Stone says some of the injured were thrown from the plane.
[Stone:] Twenty minutes later, this lady just appears from like 500 yards away, just like crippled, just walking in the plane. So, we start running over and there's like another five bodies that were like 500 yards away that nobody saw. And so we're running over there calling the ambulance and stuff. But the ambulances took like 20, 30 minutes to get there. It was pretty ridiculous.
[Marquez:] Despite the clear day, pilots say landing at San Francisco International can be tricky. This Google Earth image shows the final approach, runway 28 left and right close to each other. The runway starting right at the water's edge. Now, the Asiana CEO also telling CNN that there was no emergency indication given to passengers before that plane landed, confirming what we believe, that there was that passengers knew nothing before that plane crashed. The National Transportation Safety Board investigators are on the ground and a team, an investigative team from Seoul are also on their way here. Back to you guys.
[Brown:] All right. Miguel Marquez, thank you so much. And we have heard that even though passengers weren't warned of something happening, they had a hunch.
[Blackwell:] Yes.
[Brown:] We've heard several passengers say they had a hunch something just wasn't right upon landing.
[Blackwell:] Chaos, then quiet, and then that rush out of the plane, yes.
[Brown:] Well, Flight 214 was one of Boeing's 777 model jets. The aircraft manufacturer released a statement and here's what it says. It saying "Boeing extends its deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who perished in the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident in San Francisco, as well as its wishes for the recovery of those injured. Boeing will join the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board at their request to provide technical assistance to their investigation." And speaking of, the go team for the NTSB has now arrived on the scene of the crash. Their official Twitter account sent out this image right here earlier this morning. And take a look here. You can see investigator right outside the plane examining what remains, but it's what this other picture we're about to show you. It shows inside the plane. This is what's so striking. You can get a closer look inside the charted plane. And as you see there in the back right, where the Twitter sign is
[Blackwell:] Yes.
[Brown:] You can see those oxygen masks deployed and the rows of seating thrown about inside that plane. Tough to see, but if you look up close
[Blackwell:] If we can keep this picture up.
[Brown:] Yes.
[Blackwell:] I mean just imagine, so many of us fly for jobs or travel. This is the summer travel season. You're inside that plane and you kind of listen to the instructions, but this is what happens when those are important. The plane goes dark. Those seats I don't know if you can tell on your television are kind of slammed over. As Pamela said, the masks have fallen, the overhead luggage has fallen, there's smoke, there's fire. I mean that is the worst nightmare of anyone who flies, but imagine being in this. And 305 of the 307 leave with their lives. Of course, we know this morning that, unfortunately, two Chinese women did die, but
[Brown:] But it's amazing when you look at this that there weren't more fatalities and more injuries.
[Blackwell:] Yes.
[Brown:] And San Francisco General Hospital, well, it's the only level one trauma center in the city. And as you can imagine, they've been inundated with some of these injured patients.
[Blackwell:] They had been, right after the crash, the staff pitched tents outside the ER to handle this huge rush of patients. And that's where CNN's Sara Sidner is, right outside the hospital. What do we know about the number of patients and their injuries there at that hospital, Sara?
[Sara Sidner, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Well, we know that there were 26 children and 27 adults who have been treated here at San Francisco General. We know there were 45 patients treated at Stanford Medical Center, which is another level one trauma center, which is about 45 minutes south of here. And so we know 52 patients here, 45 there, a total of 182 patients that have been taken to 11 bay area hospitals. We can tell you about some of the injuries because the hospital spokesman came out several hours ago and just talked about some of the injuries that they have been treating. Many of them are, you know, cuts and bruises, but also broken bones, spinal injuries, so we're talking very serious injuries, and then we do know that six people have been in critical condition. They're also dealing with internal injuries, very dangerous as well. And so we're waiting to find out just exactly how many patients are still inside. We know that six have been released from San Francisco General and six are in critical condition. I want to let you listen to one of the passengers who survived this
[Blackwell:] All right, so clearly we're having some problems with Sara's shot, but we do know, again, as she said, 52 people at that hospital, 26 of them children.
[Brown:] Oh, unbelievable. And one in critical condition. And as she said, there's a range of injuries from very serious injuries, like spinal cord injuries, to bumps and bruises.
[Blackwell:] And especially with these children, you know, some of the injuries you can see. Some of the injuries you can repair with some medication or an ointment or surgery. But when you're that young, there are probably some psychological injuries as well that we won't be able to see just yet.
[Brown:] Emotional scars.
[Blackwell:] But we'll try to get back to Sara at San Francisco general hospital.
[Brown:] And flight 214 originated in Shanghai right before stopping in Seoul, Korea, the home base for Asiana Airlines. From there it was a scheduled nonstop flight to San Francisco.
[Blackwell:] Yes, Diana Magnay is in Seoul with the latest response on this deadly crash. What do we know at this hour from the officials there, either from the government or from Asiana Airlines?
[Diana Magnay, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Asiana Airlines, the CEO has given a press conference talking about what he knows. He says he doesn't think that this was engine failure. This was one of their newer planes bought in 2006, this 777. And obviously we've heard also from transport officials here that it would be easy to locate the black box, seeing as this plane crashed on the runway. But it may take as long as two years to actually fathom out what the cause is. And there are a team of Korean investigators on route to San Francisco right now to help the NTSB in their investigation. The CEO really just an abject apology to the people involved. Let's just take a listen to what he said.
[Unidentified Male:] I am very sorry to worry families of passengers, as well as our people. I bow my head in apology.
[Magnay:] He said that the pilots were extremely experienced. The lead pilot, who was flying at the time, was a veteran pilot of Asiana. He had been with the company since 1996, had around 10,000 flight hours, and some more details about those two teenaged Chinese girls who lost their lives in this accident.
[Brown:] So sad. Diana Magnay reporting for us from Seoul, South Korea. Thank you.
[Blackwell:] Well, as Diana told us, the South Korean officials are in route, but the U.S. officials, NTSB investigators, are on the ground now trying to figure out why Flight 214 crash landed yesterday. After the break, we'll talk with a former transportation department inspector general who says the explanation is already clear to her.