Asiana Airlines Flight 214

[Arctickat]

The National Transportation Safety Board is scheduled to hold a 2:30 p.m. ET news conference today on the fatal crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214.

Two people died when the Boeing 777 crashed Saturday in San Francisco, although investigators say one of the victims may have been run over by an emergency vehicle.

Flight 214, with 307 people on board, originated in Shanghai, China, and stopped in Seoul, South Korea. It was preparing to land when the rear of the plane struck the edge of the runway, severing the tail. Most passengers were able to escape before the plane erupted in smoke and flames.

Investigators said Monday they were focusing on the crew and the aircraft itself in trying to determine what happened.

Holy.

[scubanurse]

Not the PR you want after an incident like this...

[island emt]

The senior pilot in charge basically flew the Forker into the ground.

Pilot fail.

Latest investigation report says maybe the 2 girls who died may have been run over by emergency vehicles responding to scene.

[Richard B the EMT]

Any deaths are regrettable. If it is confirmed that one of the 2 deaths were due to being hit by an emergency vehicle, I really don't know what to think.

I have vague memories of reading that someone on a racetrack pit crew, running to give aid, was hit by a fire truck going counter to the racetrack traffic flow, responding to a flamer wreck.

[triemal04]

The senior pilot in charge basically flew the Forker into the ground.

Pilot fail.

Latest investigation report says maybe the 2 girls who died may have been run over by emergency vehicles responding to scene.

It was the junior pilot actually, but yeah, it'll take awhile for the final say so, but that's how it's sounding more and more.

And I really, really hope that SFFD didn't actually hit someone...

[ERDoc]

The media keeps making a big deal out of the "junior" pilot only having 34 hours. They seem to forget that he has over a thousand hours flying experience and also completed many hours of simulator time before he was allowed to fly it. Obviously something went wrong (whether it be mechanical, human or both) but to say it was because of his inexperience I think shows how little the media actually understand how the aviation world works. You don't just say, "Hey, I want to be a pilot," and get thrown into the cockpit of a 777.

[triemal04]

The media keeps making a big deal out of the "junior" pilot only having 34 hours. They seem to forget that he has over a thousand hours flying experience and also completed many hours of simulator time before he was allowed to fly it. Obviously something went wrong (whether it be mechanical, human or both) but to say it was because of his inexperience I think shows how little the media actually understand how the aviation world works. You don't just say, "Hey, I want to be a pilot," and get thrown into the cockpit of a 777.

Well...yeah...it's the media...they tend to hype things in the most simplistic way.

What I find most interesting is that, while he had landed at SFO before, the airports automated landing systems (for lack of a better term) where turned off during the crash. If this was a pilot that was used to landing under IFR instead of VFR, that may help explain why he came in so short of the appropriate point to land on the runway. It doesn't explain why he came in so slow, or why he (and the other pilots, if they were in the cockpit) didn't pick up on how slow they were coming in till far to late.

My personal guess it it'll come down to that; lack of familiarity landing a 777 (or any other large jet) without all available instruments, and due to that lack of familiarity the fact that their speed had dropped wasn't picked up on.

[ERDoc]

I had read somewhere (don't remember where) that they had the autothrottle engaged so didn't notice the loss of airspeed until it was too late. I hate to Monday morning quarterback but it sounds more like human error and loss of situational awareness. As for the ILS (instrument landing system), even if they are doing an instrument approach, once they can see visual markers, they are supposed to go by what the visual markers say. Rwy 28L had Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) lights which visually tell a pilot if they are too high or too low and look like this:

I'd be curious to listen to the voice recorder to find out what was going on in the cockpit. Here is another interesting article:

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/07/asiana-214-landing/

Edited July 10, 2013 by ERDoc

[island emt]

They allowed airspeed to bleed off until they were in a stall condition. only way to gain lift is to gain airflow over the wings which means increase the forward speed and put the nose down. Kinda hard to put the nose down when your only 100 feet in the air.

When that occurs , lift is lost off the wing and you might as well be trying to fly a cinder block or a safe.

[Richard B the EMT]

Pilot failure or equipment failure, some will never be satisfied with the NTSB's "conclusive" answer. I, for one, still think it was equipment failure, not pilot error, for the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus 300, on November 12, 2001, in my home community of Belle Harbor, NY. 260 souls aboard the aircraft, and 5 more on the ground, lost their lives.