By Kang Seung-woo
Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers on Asiana Airlines Flight 214 survived a crash landing, with only a small number being critically injured.
Without the cabin crew's quick actions, it could have been more disastrous, according to passengers and rescue service personnel.
On Saturday (local time) when the Boeing-777 crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport, the aircraft bounced violently on the tarmac with its tail coming off, and smoke started coming from the right side of the cabin leaving only four left-side doors available for evacuation.
Eugene Rah, a hip-hop producer, praised flight crewmember Kim Ji-yeon for her devotion to saving lives in the emergency.
"She was a hero," Rah told the Wall Street Journal.
"This tiny, little girl was carrying people piggyback, running everywhere, with tears running down her face. She was crying, but she was still so calm and helping people."
He added the flight attendants on board the Asiana Flight got everyone off the plane as the smoke billowed inside.
San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White also gave credit to the crew, hailing them as heroic.
"San Francisco Fire Department chief calls Asiana 214 cabin manager a hero," Jenna Lane said on her Twitter account.
The cabin manager is Lee Yoon-hye is a flight attendant with 18 years experience said Asiana.
The Twitter user also said that Lee was one of the last people on board and only went to hospital on the medics' insistence.
The fire chief also told reporters that very well-trained crew maintained professionalism and composure (in the evacuation process).
"Flight attendants are trained for emergencies every year and as I was just focused on evacuating passengers as quickly as possible and extinguishing the fire, I had no time to worry about my safety," Lee said Sunday during a press conference in San Francisco.
During the crash-landing, she suffered from a hip injury, but found out about it later in hospital.
"I think I was hurt when the plane landed, but I did not know what the injury was until I saw a doctor."
According to the nation's second-largest airline, a total of 12 flight attendants including two from Thailand were serving on the aircraft.
But seven were knocked out due to the crash, leaving five including Lee and Kim to help passengers get out safely from the plane.
They evacuated the injured first and then took the unconscious co-workers out before leaving the crash scene.
"The flight attendants acted with composure in accordance with safety training and it led to a speedy yet orderly evacuation of the all passengers and cabin crew," an Asiana spokesman said in a statement issued Monday.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Levy, a 39-year-old venture capitalist from San Francisco who sat in a window seat near one of the wings, also contributed to the "well-accomplished" evacuation despite an injury suffered from the crash.
The impact from the crash-landing hurt his ribs ― he found out they were bruised ― but he helped to open the closest emergency door to him and helped other passengers ― reportedly some 50 ― get out.
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| Lee Yoon-hye, cabin service manager of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, speaks during a press conference at a hotel in San Francisco, Sunday. Lee and four other flight attendants helped all passengers and fainted co-workers get out of the aircraft that crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport one day earlier. She also suffered from hip injury. / Yonhap |
Without the cabin crew's quick actions, it could have been more disastrous, according to passengers and rescue service personnel.
On Saturday (local time) when the Boeing-777 crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport, the aircraft bounced violently on the tarmac with its tail coming off, and smoke started coming from the right side of the cabin leaving only four left-side doors available for evacuation.
Eugene Rah, a hip-hop producer, praised flight crewmember Kim Ji-yeon for her devotion to saving lives in the emergency.
"She was a hero," Rah told the Wall Street Journal.
"This tiny, little girl was carrying people piggyback, running everywhere, with tears running down her face. She was crying, but she was still so calm and helping people."
He added the flight attendants on board the Asiana Flight got everyone off the plane as the smoke billowed inside.
San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White also gave credit to the crew, hailing them as heroic.
"San Francisco Fire Department chief calls Asiana 214 cabin manager a hero," Jenna Lane said on her Twitter account.
The cabin manager is Lee Yoon-hye is a flight attendant with 18 years experience said Asiana.
The Twitter user also said that Lee was one of the last people on board and only went to hospital on the medics' insistence.
The fire chief also told reporters that very well-trained crew maintained professionalism and composure (in the evacuation process).
"Flight attendants are trained for emergencies every year and as I was just focused on evacuating passengers as quickly as possible and extinguishing the fire, I had no time to worry about my safety," Lee said Sunday during a press conference in San Francisco.
During the crash-landing, she suffered from a hip injury, but found out about it later in hospital.
"I think I was hurt when the plane landed, but I did not know what the injury was until I saw a doctor."
According to the nation's second-largest airline, a total of 12 flight attendants including two from Thailand were serving on the aircraft.
But seven were knocked out due to the crash, leaving five including Lee and Kim to help passengers get out safely from the plane.
They evacuated the injured first and then took the unconscious co-workers out before leaving the crash scene.
"The flight attendants acted with composure in accordance with safety training and it led to a speedy yet orderly evacuation of the all passengers and cabin crew," an Asiana spokesman said in a statement issued Monday.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Levy, a 39-year-old venture capitalist from San Francisco who sat in a window seat near one of the wings, also contributed to the "well-accomplished" evacuation despite an injury suffered from the crash.
The impact from the crash-landing hurt his ribs ― he found out they were bruised ― but he helped to open the closest emergency door to him and helped other passengers ― reportedly some 50 ― get out.
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