Passengers talk of their terror as plane turns into fireball at San Francisco Airport

A passenger plane carrying 307 people turned into an "inferno" and crash landed at San Francisco International Airport last night (Saturday). SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO.

Two passengers have been killed and at least 182 injured, according to local news reports.

Rescuers are already talking of a "miracle" that more lives were not lost, as dozens of passengers were able to evacuate the wreckage via emergency slides.

Images of the crash, which occurred at 11.30pm local time, show the cabin of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 Boeing 777 completely burned out, with its tail snapped off.

The plane was travelling from Seoul, South Korea. According to the Daily Mail, the two dead both had Chinese passports. One has been identified as a woman, the other a 16-year-old girl.

US Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsfor told AFP the airport has been closed until further notice.

Passenger David Eun, an excutive for Samsung, tweeted a picture of people jumping out of the plane's emergency inflatable slides and wrote: "I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok. Surreal..."

Witness Kristina Stapchuck told CNN: "It looked like the tires slipped a little bit and it rocked back."

Anthony Castorani, who saw the flight crash land from a nearby hotel, told CNN. "You heard a pop and you immediately saw a large, brief fireball that came from underneath the aircraft. It began to cartwheel."

Weather conditions at the airport were reported as fine with a little wind.

The events leading to the crash remain unclear.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Saturday's crash was almost identical to that of a BA Boeing 777 crash at London Heathrow five years ago.

Related articles

Plane misses runway at Bali airport and lands in sea, passengers survive

Plane crash lands between two apartment blocks near Chicago