Just after the crash, the pilots told the flight crew not to evacuate the passengers. However, the pilots later told them to evacuate, and the crew did so quickly. The crew also helped several passengers who could not escape the plane alone. One of the pilots carried out a passenger with an injured leg.
One flight attendant said that many of the Chinese passengers, at first, could not understand the instructions to evacuate because of a language barrier.
During the evacuation, a fire began in the cabin, near the 10th row. One of the pilots put it out.
Two of the escape slides shot into the cabin instead of outside of it. The first escape slide blocked one of the exits and almost suffocated a flight attendant. One of the pilots burst it with an axe from the cockpit. The second went towards the middle of the aircraft, where there was a fire. It trapped another flight attendant, but a pilot burst it with a knife.
Some passengers who were sitting at the back of the plane got out through the hole left by the tail of the plane, which was torn off in the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board has started an investigation. An NTSB team has been sent to San Francisco. Asiana CEO Yoon Young-Doo said "Currently we understand that there were no engine or mechanical problems." It is thought that the plane was too low when it was coming in to land and hit the seawall. The NTSB said that it looked like the pilots were flying too slowly while approaching the runway. The sound of the stick shaker (when the yoke vibrates to warn pilots that the plane may stall) could be heard about 4 seconds before the crash on the cockpit voice recorder. The crew tried a go-around 1.5 seconds before the plane hit the ground and the engines seemed to have worked fine.
On July 7, 2013, NTSB investigators found the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. They were moved to Washington, D.C. to be analysed. The NTSB said that the pilots tried to stop the landing and go around 1.5 seconds before the crash.
The coroner of San Mateo County, Robert Foucrault, is doing an autopsy on the people who died. He and someone from the fire department have said that one of the girls who died might have survived the crash but might have been killed after being run over by a fire truck.
This was the very first time that anyone died on a Boeing 777 aircraft.
The airport was closed for about five hours after the crash. Flights which were going to San Francisco were told to land somewhere else. Some of the other airports the planes landed at were Sacramento, Los Angeles and Seattle. By 3:30 PDT (22:30 UTC), runways 01L/19R and 01R/19L were open again. However, the runway the accident happened on 28L and the one next to it (28R) stayed closed. About 24 hours later, runway 10L/28R was opened again.
Asiana is still flying from Seoul to San Francisco, but after the incident the flight number was changed to 212.
The Phantom of the Opera (musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1986 musical. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe wrote the book. Charles Hart and Stilgoe wrote the lyrics. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music. The musical is based on the 1910 novel, "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux.
"Phantom" opened at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End on 9 October 1986. Michael Crawford originated the titular role, with Sarah Brightman played Christine and Steve Barton as Raoul.
The musical opened on Broadway on 26 January 1988 at the Majestic Theatre. Crawford, Brightman, and Barton played their West End roles in the Broadway production.
The story is about a deformed musical genius who lives in a sewer beneath the opera house in Paris. Obsessed with a young soprano by the name of Christine, he terrorizes everyone at the opera in an effort to make her a star.
The musical won various awards over the years, including the 1986 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical. Michael Crawford won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical.
The musical was made into a movie with the same name in 2004. It stars Gerard Butler as the Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine, and Patrick Wilson as Raoul.
The Color of Friendship
The Color of Friendship is a 2000 television movie. It is based on real life events about the friendship between two girls: Mahree and Piper. Piper lives in the United States while Mahree lives in apartheid-era South Africa. Mahree learns about tolerance and friendship. The movie focuses on racism between two different races. The movie was directed by Kevin Hooks. It was based on a script by Paris Qualles. It stars Lindsey Haun and Shadia Simmons.
Since 2005, Disney Channel has annually aired "Color of Friendship" in celebration of Black History Month in the United States. It was released on VHS in 2002. Many movie critics gave positive reviews about the movie. The movie is also based on the short story written by real life Piper Dellums. "The Color of Friendship" has received many awards and nominations throughout 2000 and 2001. It was nominated for three Young Artist Awards, winning only one. It also was nominated for a Directors Guild of America award. It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program. It also won an Humanitas Prize, NAACP Image Award and Writers Guild of America award.
In 1977, Mahree Bok (Lindsey Haun) is a white South African. She lives in a mansion with her parents and little brother. They enjoy the benefits from the system of apartheid. They never questioned if it is good or bad for their country. Mahree's father, Pieter Bok, is a South African policeman. He is overjoyed when Steve Biko (a black South African man fighting against apartheid) is caught by the South African authorities. The family owns a black maid, Flora (Melanie Nicholls-King). Mahree considers her a friend and does not understand that Flora is not happy with her life under apartheid. It is from Flora that Mahree hears about the weaver bird and its nest-building. This is used as a metaphor for racial harmony. Mahree does not understand at the time and tells Flora that "people are not birds".
Piper Dellums (Shadia Simmons) is a black girl who lives in Washington, D.C.. She lives with her father, Congressman Ron Dellums (Carl Lumbly), her mother Roscoe Dellums (Penny Johnson) and her two younger twin brothers, Brady (Anthony Burnett) and Erik (Erron Jackson). Ron Dellums is an outspoken opponent of the South African apartheid system. Piper is excited to be a host to an African exchange student. She believes the exchange student will be black, while Mahree believes her host family will be white. They are not pleased to find out they were both wrong. Ron is also not please by Mahree's political views. Mahree is horrified and panics when she is confronted by this new situation. She locks herself in Piper's bedroom and refuses to come out.
Eventually, Piper finds a way to unlock the door. She gives Mahree food her host family had bought her. She continues to be scared about living in a house with black people. Upset by this, Piper tells Mahree how disappointed she is in her. Stunned by this, Mahree sees how rude she's been, and agrees to stay and try to make this work. During Mahree's stay, she and the Dellums grow closer together. Mahree sees people of different races getting along. She then realizes how much she and Piper have in common. They become friends. She then develops a better understanding of what life under South African apartheid must be like for people of color.