Tail of Asiana plane hit runway before crashing—S. Korea transport ministry

People look at the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 where it crashed at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Saturday, July 6, 2013. AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, LiPo Ching

SEOUL— The tail of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 hit the runway before it crashed at San Francisco International Airport, South Korea’s transportation ministry said Sunday.

“The tail of the Asiana flight hit the runway and the aircraft veered to the left out of the runway,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was sending a four-member team to inspect the site of the accident.

Two people were killed and 181 injured when Flight 214 crashed and burst into flames. The plane had 307 people — 291 passengers and 16 crew — on board when it left Seoul.

It was the first fatal crash involving an Asiana passenger plane since June 1993, when an Asiana Boeing 737 crashed into a mountain in South Korea, killing 68.