Asiana crash probe places focus on pilots
Source: Agencies |
July 13, 2013, Saturday
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Print Edition
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A PROBE into Asiana Flight 214 focused squarely on the pilots after the head of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said investigators found no evidence of mechanical problems.
In her final briefing before the agency concluded its on-site detective work, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said on Thursday the airplane showed no signs of a breakdown, and on voice recorders, the pilots of the Boeing 777 fail to notice that their approach is dangerously low and slow until it's too late.
"There is no mention of speed until about nine seconds before impact, when they're at 100 feet (30 meters)," she said.
Just seconds before impact, two of the pilots call for the landing to be aborted.
Investigators have stressed that nothing has been definitively ruled out and no firm conclusions reached. The agency's final evaluation is expected to take more than a year.
The jet itself, though heavily damaged, had no malfunctions in any critical systems, including the engines and flight-control surfaces, the autopilot, the autothrottles and the flight director, Hersman said.
Two Chinese teenagers were killed and 180 of the 307 people on board were hurt on July 6 when the airliner slammed into a seawall at the end of the runway. The impact ripped off the back of the plane, tossed out three flight attendants and scattered pieces of the jet across the runway.
Passengers, some with broken bones, were told over the jet's public address system to stay in their seats for 90 seconds while the cockpit consulted with the control tower, a safety procedure to prevent people from evacuating into life-threatening fires or machinery.
Authorities are investigating whether one of the two teens who died may have been run over by a fire truck.
The Federal Aviation Administration has found "no significant issues" during 134 unannounced mechanical, pilot or avionic checks on Asiana airliners over the last 18 months, Hersman said.
She has said that pilots Lee Gang-kuk, who was landing the jet for his first time at the San Francisco airport, and Lee Jeong-Min, who was training him, were ultimately responsible for a safe landing.
While the pilots were manually flying the jet for the landing, as expected on a clear, sunny day, they told investigators they thought the airliner's speed was being controlled by an autothrottle set for 252 kph.
Inspectors found that the autothrottle had been "armed," or made ready for activation, Hersman said. But investigators are still determining whether it had been engaged. In the last two minutes, there was a lot of use of autopilot and autothrottle, and investigators are going to look into whether pilots made the appropriate commands and if they knew what they were doing, she said.
Experts said the evidence points toward pilot error.
Lee Collins, a pilot with 29 years of experience, said the question is how the Asiana pilots could make such a "gross error."
During the evacuation, many passengers jumped out the back of the plane or slid down inflated slides through emergency exits. Then, said some, an unnerving wait began. Emergency phone tapes recorded frantic callers, pleading for help.
San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said passengers may not have immediately seen ambulances because they were dispatched to a staging area, as first responders assessed who needed to be taken to the hospital.
"Our response was immediate," Talmadge said.
In her final briefing before the agency concluded its on-site detective work, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said on Thursday the airplane showed no signs of a breakdown, and on voice recorders, the pilots of the Boeing 777 fail to notice that their approach is dangerously low and slow until it's too late.
"There is no mention of speed until about nine seconds before impact, when they're at 100 feet (30 meters)," she said.
Just seconds before impact, two of the pilots call for the landing to be aborted.
Investigators have stressed that nothing has been definitively ruled out and no firm conclusions reached. The agency's final evaluation is expected to take more than a year.
The jet itself, though heavily damaged, had no malfunctions in any critical systems, including the engines and flight-control surfaces, the autopilot, the autothrottles and the flight director, Hersman said.
Two Chinese teenagers were killed and 180 of the 307 people on board were hurt on July 6 when the airliner slammed into a seawall at the end of the runway. The impact ripped off the back of the plane, tossed out three flight attendants and scattered pieces of the jet across the runway.
Passengers, some with broken bones, were told over the jet's public address system to stay in their seats for 90 seconds while the cockpit consulted with the control tower, a safety procedure to prevent people from evacuating into life-threatening fires or machinery.
Authorities are investigating whether one of the two teens who died may have been run over by a fire truck.
The Federal Aviation Administration has found "no significant issues" during 134 unannounced mechanical, pilot or avionic checks on Asiana airliners over the last 18 months, Hersman said.
She has said that pilots Lee Gang-kuk, who was landing the jet for his first time at the San Francisco airport, and Lee Jeong-Min, who was training him, were ultimately responsible for a safe landing.
While the pilots were manually flying the jet for the landing, as expected on a clear, sunny day, they told investigators they thought the airliner's speed was being controlled by an autothrottle set for 252 kph.
Inspectors found that the autothrottle had been "armed," or made ready for activation, Hersman said. But investigators are still determining whether it had been engaged. In the last two minutes, there was a lot of use of autopilot and autothrottle, and investigators are going to look into whether pilots made the appropriate commands and if they knew what they were doing, she said.
Experts said the evidence points toward pilot error.
Lee Collins, a pilot with 29 years of experience, said the question is how the Asiana pilots could make such a "gross error."
During the evacuation, many passengers jumped out the back of the plane or slid down inflated slides through emergency exits. Then, said some, an unnerving wait began. Emergency phone tapes recorded frantic callers, pleading for help.
San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said passengers may not have immediately seen ambulances because they were dispatched to a staging area, as first responders assessed who needed to be taken to the hospital.
"Our response was immediate," Talmadge said.
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