briefs related to plane crash

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg took to Facebook to let friends and others know she, her family and colleagues were booked on the Asiana flight that crashed Saturday morning, but had switched to United to get frequent-flier miles. “Taking a minute to be thankful and explain what happened,” Sandberg posted on her Facebook page. “My family, colleagues Debbie Frost, Charlton Gholson and Kelly Hoffman and I were originally going to take the Asiana flight that just crash-landed. We switched to United so we could use miles for my family’s tickets.” Sandberg wrote the best-selling book “Lean In,” her manifesto for women in the workplace.

Relative gets

good news from son

There was good news for at least one person waiting for a passenger on the shattered aircraft. Mark Schimmel was at the airport to pick up his 19-year-old son, David, who was returning from a martial arts competition in South Korea. ”I’ve been in contact with him by cell phone,” Schimmel said as he hurried to an airport room where people were waiting for news about friends and relatives on the flight. “I was nervous and so thankful that he’s all right.”

Flight rerouted

at last minute

Catherine Malone Habas and her family were 20 minutes from landing in San Francisco, en route home from a two-week vacation in Cape Cod, when the plane headed into an unexpected circle and the pilot came on the public address system. “He said, ‘Everything went smoothly for 5 hours and 40 minutes, but we’ve been put into a holding pattern for at least 20 minutes because of a disabled plane at SFO,’ ” Malone Habas recounted. Twenty minutes later, the pilot came on again with a short message for the passengers: “We’ve been diverted to Sacramento. We’re landing in 15 minutes.” That was when David Habas looked at the television screen and saw that a plane crash had occurred at their destination.

Crash leaves

hundreds stranded

Hundreds of passengers left idled at the airport were struggling with what to do next. A dozen members of a family set to fly home to Houston and New Orleans on Saturday were calling every hotel and airline they could find. All they were told by officials, they said, was that their Southwest Airlines flight was canceled and no replacement flights had been scheduled — but that they should check into flights heading out of Oakland International Airport. ”We are really mad,” said Dedra Stemley, a nurse from Houston. “They’re telling us to go to Oakland. We don’t know how to get to Oakland. We’re not from here. We’re strangers here.”

Departing passenger

sees plane crash

A Phoenix-bound passenger inside the San Francisco airp0rt terminal said she saw a plane hit the ground and skid on its belly before turning into “billowing smoke.” Krista Seiden, 26, a marketing manager from San Francisco, said she was in line to board her flight when she saw the plane make its landing. Nothing seemed amiss at first, she said, but then “I saw it hit the ground and it skidded on its belly.” She recalled exclaiming: “A plane just crashed.” The startled agent at the U.S. Airways counter said: “What? Are you sure?” then got on the phone with emergency personnel. The agent arranged for passengers who were already on board Seiden’s flight to leave the plane.

President thanks

first responders

President Barack Obama expressed his gratitude to the first responders at the scene of the crash. The White House said in a statement that Obama directed his team to stay in touch with federal, state and local partners as they investigate the accident. The White House said the president’s thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected by the crash.