Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Plane Crash in San Francisco in Real Time, Via Samsung Exec David Eun on Board

Earlier today, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 coming from Seoul crash-landed at San Francisco’s international airport. Immediately, tweets and also photographs from the scene started popping up on Twitter and other social networks, many showing billowing smoke from the fuselage.

Perhaps most dramatic have been the posts by Samsung exec David Eun, who was actually on the flight and who quickly posted about the accident on Path. His post also appeared on Twitter.

He noted that he was not hurt in the crash, although reports indicate that others were.

Eun, who is the South Korean electronics giant’s exec in Silicon Valley, is a well known tech player, having worked at AOL and Google over the years.

He also seems to have nerves of steel, continuing to post updates about the situation.

“Fire and rescue people all over the place. They’re evacuating the injured. Haven’t felt this way since 9/11. Trying to help people stay calm. Deep breaths…,” he wrote on Path.

And: “Lots of activity here. Friends, pls don’t call right now. I’m fine. Most people are totally calm and trying to let the fire and rescue do their jobs. Just like during 9/11, most people are great and try to be helpful in crisis…”

Eun even managed to politely put off an effort by CNN’s digital head K.C. Estenson to get him on the phone to talk about the situation.

Eun was not the only in one sharing news in digitally wired San Francisco, with pictures all over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Danielle Wells, for example, was watching from a terminal, having just gone through security.

And:

Update 2:26 PT: Along with the many others on the ground tweeting and sharing condolences for those involved in the plane crash was Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.

According to her most recent status update, Sandberg was supposed to be aboard this Asiana flight, but made a last-minute change to her itinerary, switching to United “so we could use [frequent flyer] miles for [her] family’s tickets,” Sandberg wrote.

“Serious moment to give thanks,” she wrote.

More to come, sadly.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

When AllThingsD began, we told readers we were aiming to present a fusion of new-media timeliness and energy with old-media standards for quality and ethics. And we hope you agree that we’ve done that.

— Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, in their farewell D post