North Texan Witnesses Aftermath of San Francisco Crash

Collin County Resident Forced to Wait a Day to Fly Home

Saturday's deadly plane crash of an Asiana Airlines flight at San Francisco International Airport has had ripple effects on North Texas.

The flight packed with more than 300 people slammed into the runway while landing at San Francisco airport Saturday. At least two people died in the crash, while another 181 people were taken to hospitals, most with minor injuries, authorities said.

DFW International Airport reported at least eight departure flights being cancelled, and others delayed, by SFO's closure and then limited runway availability.

And at least five other flights set to arrive from San Francisco were also cancelled.

One of those flights unable to get out would have brought a vacationing North Texan back home. Steve Embury, who runs a blinds business in Collin County, was waiting for his Virgin American flight to board when he looked up to see the aftermath of Asiana flight 214's crash.

"All of a sudden I heard a little bit of commotion and I looked up and there's a big giant ball of dust, the plane went into the dirt," Embury told NBC 5 by phone on Saturday.

Embury is booked to return to DFW on Sunday and is staying at a hotel across from the airport where he can still see the remnants of the Asiana Boeing 777.

The crash at SFO forced Dallas-based Southwest Airlines to suspend its operations at the airport for the day. The airline said it hoped to get its final scheduled flights into the airport on Saturday night. Southwest has been busing passengers to other Bay Area airports and adding more flights to Oakland and San Jose .

Asiana doesn't fly passenger flights into DFW but does have a presence at the airport. Asiana Cargo has flown into DFW since September 2012.

The website flight mapper.net says six cargo flights from Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea arrive at DFW each week.

Embury, meantime, hopes to get home on Sunday but isn’t overly worried about his flight or surprised to see an accident like what he witnesses on Saturday.

“I was thinking of that the other day, I’m surprised they don't have more accidents,” he said, mentioning how close to the water you fly when landing.

Most airlines including Fort Worth based American Airlines and Dallas based Southwest Airlines have instituted special re-booking policies because of the crash. Those policies impact any flights on Saturday and Sunday.

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