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Crash Survivor: Flight Attendants 'Fell Out' of the Back of the Plane
Investigators pass the detached tail and landing gear of Asiana Flight 214 after it crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, July 6, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP)

Crash Survivor: Flight Attendants 'Fell Out' of the Back of the Plane

"The most terrible thing I've seen."–• Black boxes recovered• Airline president: Engine failure not likely the cause• "I am bowing my head and extending my deep apology"

A survivor of the Asiana Airlines plane crash at San Francisco International Airport said flight attendants "fell out" of the back of the plane after the tail section broke off.

Investigators pass the detached tail and landing gear of Asiana Flight 214 after it crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, July 6, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP)

"Right when it appeared to coast for the landing,...(he) sped up, like the pilot knew he was short," Elliott Stone told CNN, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. "And then the back end just hit, and flies up in the air, and everybody's head goes up to the ceiling. And then it just kind of drifts for a little bit, for a good 300 yards and then tips over. Fire starts."

Two passengers identified as teen girls from China were found outside the wreckage and confirmed dead, and 182 people were transported to area hospitals, 49 with critical injuries. The flight had been carrying 307 people.

Getty Images

Stone said he was able to evacuate safely because he was seated in the middle of the Boeing 777, but the flight attendants seated in the back "got hammered, because we landed short."

"And then they all fell out - and it was just the most terrible thing I've seen," he said.

Stone said that about 20 minutes after the crash, he and other passengers noticed "another five bodies" away from the site "that nobody saw."

"We were yelling at people, yelling at firefighters. Get over here. They were just lagging hard. I don't know," he said.

Onlookers talk outside of The Reflection Room where friends and relatives of Asiana Flight 214 passengers await news following the crash of the passenger jet at the San Francisco International in San Francisco, Saturday,July 6, 2013. (AP)

Vedpal Singh told the Associated Press he was seated in the middle of the aircraft with his family when he heard a loud sound.

"We knew something was horrible wrong," said Singh, who sustained a fractured collarbone.

His 15-year-old son said luggage tumbled from the overhead bins. Singh said the entire plane went quiet before people struggled to get out anyway they could.

"It's miraculous we survived," he said.

An Asiana Airlines crews prepare to board their flight at the Incheon International Airport on July 7, 2013 in Incheon, South Korea. (Getty Images)

Benjamin Levy, 39, was seated in the emergency exit row and told the AP it seemed like the plane was flying too low as it approached the runway. Levy said he felt the pilot try to lift the jet just before impact.

"Everybody was screaming. I was trying to usher them out," he said of the first seconds after the crash. "I said, `Stay calm, stop screaming, help each other out, don't push.'"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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