A consortium of underwriters insured the Asiana AirlinesBoeing 777 that crashed Saturday in San Francisco for $2.3 billion,with 10 Korean insurers sharing about 4 percent of the potentialloss, says Korea's Financial Supervisory Service.

The Asia Insurance Review reports that in additionto the 10 Korean insurers, 30 foreign insurers share in the riskthat covers $130 million for the hull and $3 million for crewliability. Coverage for facility damages and human casualties makesup $2.2 billion of the policy.

Flight 214 was carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew membersincluding 61 U.S. citizens, says Asiana Airlines when the jetcrashed Saturday as it landed at San Francisco InternationalAirport. Two young women died and 182 were injured. Asiana says 48people still remain hospitalized.

During a press conference yesterday, U.S. NationalTransportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman sayspreliminary information obtained from the flight data recordersindicate the plane was flying “significantly” below the targetlanding speed of 137 knots. Seven seconds before the crash, therewas a call from one of the crew to increase the jet's speed. Atfour seconds there was a stick shaker (when the plane's yokevibrates) indicating the plane was in danger of stalling. At 1.5seconds before impact there was an order from the crew to go aroundand abort the landing.

Speaking today, Hersman says the flight data recorders indicatethe plane's speed dropped to 106 knots before impact. She also sayssome of the crew reported problems with the aircraft's emergencyescape systems that need further investigation. Specifically,Hersman says some of them reported that the escape chutes deployedinto the plane.

Hersman says the information is still preliminary and needscorroboration by additional data before a conclusion of whetherhuman or mechanical error caused the crash.

Photographs of the scene from the NTSB's Website show the charred remains of the planewith its tail torn-off. Other photos taken after the crash, showpassengers streaming out of the aircraft as smoked billowed fromone side.

A current focus of press reports is the jet's pilot at thecontrols, Lee Kang-guk, who was making his first landing into SanFrancisco Airport and had only 43 hours flying time with the 777.However, there has been no official link that his newness to theplane and airport attributed to the crash.

On its Website, the Federal Aviation Administrationsays Asiana Airlines, in business for 21 years, flies 12 Boeing777s. The 777 has a very good safety record with few hulllosses.