Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg planned to be on crashed Asiana flight

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, was scheduled to be on the Asiana Airlines flight that crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, but switched to a United Airlines flight.

“Taking a minute to be thankful,” Sandberg posted on Facebook. “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. Our flight was scheduled to come in at the same time, but we were early and landed about 20 minutes before the crash.”

Frost is director of communications and public affairs at Facebook. Hoffman is an administrative assistant and Gholson is a research associate.

Samsung executive David Eun was on the flight and tweeted about the crash and its aftermath from the scene.

The Facebook team was in South Korea as part of its annual swing through Asia. Sandberg met with partners and clients, and promoted her bestseller “Lean In.”

Most of the 303 passengers on board the Asiana flight from South Korea managed to escape. At least 48 people were treated for injuries. There was no official word on fatalities.

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