i don t think it s anything specific about the airport. i think what probably happened is as eyewitnesss explained that they came down too heavy, they didn t have the they weren t coming down the right spot on the glide slope on the runway, they had a strike of the tail when they came down and he may have even tried the pilot may have even tried to take off again, couldn t do it. spun around and, of course, lost control of the aircraft. i do think it will come down to a piloting issue. okay. okay, jim tillmon you still with us yes, i am. yes, i . mary schiavo kind of echoing the shot that you have on the air now. the more i see it, we have some indication of what may have happened. you ve got all kinds of debris there just at the runway edge and the water meet except that s not really the runway. that s the approach area. you re not supposed to be touching down there with
it says our thoughts are with everyone affected by today s incident at sfo, we stand ready to assist the nt bb. again, that is boeing. jennifer, stand by. richard quest, stand by. go ahead, jim tillmon. what happens once the tail separates from the airplane, you have no control, lateral control, that is the twisting of the airplane around its axis. you do have a little bit of control perhaps still within the wing structure to keep the wings relatively level and that was one of the reasons, the fact that it was level, that you may have a lot of people survive this because had the airplane gone upside down or done the cartwheel like what was described before, we would have not only more structural damage, we may have had a lot more injuries on board. what happened this thing was spinning like a top around right. as opposed to cartwheeling like has been described before. got it.
there. and according to witnesses, the plane made a crash landing. they also said they saw the plane spin around like a top. important to clarify. not a flip in the air, but spun around like a top. i want to get to cnn s richard quest now. richard, this airplane is located i mean, this airport is located about 12 miles from san francisco, downtown san francisco proper. one of the 30 busiest airport airports worldwide. 37 million people flying through this airport. obviously a very proficient airport, and for this to happen on a saturday afternoon obviously tragic. we don t know exactly what went wrong here, but obviously something did. oh, absolutely. and what we can say, of course, is san francisco, like l.a.x., they are the major asian pacific gateways for the united states. looking at the pictures now, hearing what jim tillmon said,
air on cnn unless we know it is true. we do know for sure according to the coast guard there in san francisco that they had taken one person to a hospital not exactly sure of their condition. we also know that all flights in and out of the airport are about to cancel. word is coming out they re about to open if they haven t already at least two runways to get some of the congestion out of the way. we also this plane came in from seoul, south korea. a routine flight that happens daily. into san francisco international airport. the weather according to our meteorologist, according to jim tillman who is a meteorologist and aviation expert as well. the weather would not have been an issue in this particular situation. as a matter of fact, we re going to get to our frederica and tom
thoughts? and also to dan simon who had a much more thorough report on the press conference. what we re seeing at the moment is the fog of confusion. they are concerned at first and foremost of basically accounting for passengers who were on the plane, those who survived, those who may not have done. and that is what s going to be. we will not really get much more information. in fact, i m you know, the speed with which they have given a press conference, bearing in mind this incident only happened two or three hours ago, is a testament to the preparation that the authorities have at major airports like sfo for these sorts of incidents. looking and listening to exactly what people are saying about what may have happened and how this all transpired, if you look at the pictures and the pictures of where the debris field is, as jim tillmon was saying earlier, if you look at where the plane clearly touched the ground, it is in the what s called the