Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was booked on crashed plane but changed flight last minute to get air miles

Close call: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote on her page that she and three of her colleagues were supposed to be on the crashed Asiana plane, but they had switched to a different flight

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was supposed to be on board the doomed Asiana Airlines plane that crash landed in San Francisco today, but at the last moment she had switched flights.

Sandberg was returning from a trip to Seoul, South Korea, in the company of her family and three Facebook colleagues, Debbie Frost, Charlton Gholson and Kelly Hoffman, Saturday afternoon.

Frost is director of communications and public affairs at Facebook; Hoffman is an administrative assistant and Gholson is a research associate at the company, Variety.com reported.



On her Facebook page, the high-powered executive shared the news of her close call with her followers.

Miss Sandberg explained in a message posted at around 1pm that her small group had been booked on Asiana Flight 214 from Seoul to San Francisco, but decided to fly United Airlines instead in order to use reward miles for Sandberg's family.

‘Our flight was scheduled to come in at the same time, but we were early and landed about 20 minutes before the crash,' Sandberg wrote.

Change of plans: Sandberg wrote in a Facebook post that her family and three co-workers decided to take a United flight in order to use reward miles

Catastrophic: An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 is seen on the runway at San Francisco International Airport after a crash landing that reportedly killed two and left 61 others injured

Aftermath: Emergency responders work at the site of the crash of Asiana Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco

The Facebook COO also made a reference in her post to her friend David Eun, a Samsung executive who was aboard the Asiana flight and was the first passenger to tweet that he had survived the crash.

‘Thank you to everyone who is reaching out - and sorry if we worried anyone,’ Ms Sandberg wrote in her post. ‘Serious moment to give thanks.’

Sandberg, who penned the best-selling book Lean In, inspiring women to achieve their career goals, traveled to Asia this week to hold panels and presentations in Japan and South Korea as part of her self-empowerment initiative, San Jose Mercury reported.



Empowerment trip: Sandberg (far right) traveled to Asia this week to hold panels and presentations as part of her Lean In project

Inspired: Sandberg posted several photos on her Facebook page showing young South Korean women displaying 'Lean In' messages



Her Facebook account includes a series of photos showing young South Korean women displaying 'Lean In' messages.

Sandberg and her co-workers had visited Facebook’s Tokyo offices July 1.

The Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 Flight 214 carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew members crashed while landing at San Francisco airport just before 11.30am PDT Saturday.

At least two of those on-board were killed with a further 82 injured, among them at least two children who were listed in critical condition.

Lucky one: Samsung executive David Eun was on board the Asiana Airlines 777 when it crash landed