Ten-Person Scotts Valley Group Was on Plane That Crashed at SFO – All Are OK

The owner of a martial arts school in Scotts Valley, along with his family, girlfriend and students, were on the Asiana Airlines flight that crashed Saturday morning at San Francisco International airport, killing two people and injuring  11:30 a.m. at SFO. 

All 10 people from the group with Santa Cruz area ties are safe and uninjured, according to a post on the Facebook page of Elite Martial Academy, which is located in the 200 block of Mt. Hermon Road. The group was returning from a martial arts event in South Korea.

"Everyone is home and resting after a long and exhausting day," read the post. Thank you for all the good wishes and we look forward to seeing everyone next week!"

Stone was interviewed by CNN soon after the crash, and he provided some insight about what he saw just prior to the crash and its aftermath.

"It seemed like we were a little bit high and could see the tarmac down below us, and we were coming down kind of sharp," he told CNN. "Then right when it started to coast for the landing, all of a sudden the engine was all (high-pitched sound)," he told to CNN, imitating the sound of the engine the moment before impact. "And then just boom. The back end just hit and flies up in the air and everybody's head goes up to the ceiling."

Stone told CNN that his group was sitting in the center of the coach seating area of the plane, and that passengers in the back of the plane bore the brunt of the damage, with several faling out of the back of the plane during the crash.

"It was the most terrible thing I've seen," he said. "The back got the worst of it," he said.

After the plane struck the runway, the aircraft fishtailed and rolled over before stopping, Stone said, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. He also described a fire starting.

"(When the fire started), that's when all the passengers jumped out," said Stone, who said that he ended up jumping out the plane without using the stairs or an evacuation slide.

The first announcement "was everybody calm," but Stone and others unbuckled anyway. He told CNN he jumped out a door, before slides had deployed and before first responders had arrived. A number of people lay injured near the wreckage for 20 to 30 minutes before ambulances arrived, Stone told CNN. Many people got off relatively unscathed, he said, but he saw at least five people with severe injuries.