Investigators quiz pilots on crash plane's final seconds
Source: Agencies |
July 10, 2013, Wednesday
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The South Korean pilots involved in the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in the United States have been questioned about what happened in the final seconds of the plane's approach.
The Boeing 777 was 150 meters up and about 30 seconds from San Francisco International Airport on Saturday when its speed dropped below the threshold for a safe landing. It continued slowing until about 8 seconds from touch down when the pilots recognized the need for more speed.
But it was too late. By the time the engines started adding speed, the 777 was barely above San Francisco Bay and the plane clipped the seawall at the end of the runway, slammed down and spun, then caught fire. Incredibly, only two of the 307 people on board died, and most of the survivors suffered few or no injuries.
Choi Jeong-ho, a senior official for South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, told reporters at a briefing in South Korea yesterday that investigators from both countries had quizzed two of the four Asiana pilots, Lee Gang-guk and Lee Jeong-min, and they were planning to quiz the two other pilots and air controllers.
Choi said recorded conversation between the pilots and air controllers would be investigated, too.
"I think this accident is going to go down as a textbook case study on what they call Cockpit Resource Managements, which is a fancy way of saying how the pilots talk to each other and identify solutions," said Peter Goelz, former managing director of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
He said it was not all that common after a major crash to have pilots to interview. "It's always good to have survivors," he said.
The challenge for authorities this week is to discover what decisions were made in the cockpit of the giant jet, where an experienced pilot was learning his way around a new aircraft and fellow pilots were supposed to be monitoring his actions. Questions include whether all four pilots were in the cockpit, as expected, or just the trainee and his trainer, both experienced pilots.
In addition, authorities were reviewing the initial rescue efforts after fire officials acknowledged that one of their trucks may have run over one of the two Chinese teenagers killed in the crash. The students, Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, were part of a larger group headed for a summer camp with dozens of classmates.
The girls had been seated in the rear of the aircraft, where many of the most seriously injured passengers were seated. Their bodies were found on the tarmac.
The Boeing 777 was 150 meters up and about 30 seconds from San Francisco International Airport on Saturday when its speed dropped below the threshold for a safe landing. It continued slowing until about 8 seconds from touch down when the pilots recognized the need for more speed.
But it was too late. By the time the engines started adding speed, the 777 was barely above San Francisco Bay and the plane clipped the seawall at the end of the runway, slammed down and spun, then caught fire. Incredibly, only two of the 307 people on board died, and most of the survivors suffered few or no injuries.
Choi Jeong-ho, a senior official for South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, told reporters at a briefing in South Korea yesterday that investigators from both countries had quizzed two of the four Asiana pilots, Lee Gang-guk and Lee Jeong-min, and they were planning to quiz the two other pilots and air controllers.
Choi said recorded conversation between the pilots and air controllers would be investigated, too.
"I think this accident is going to go down as a textbook case study on what they call Cockpit Resource Managements, which is a fancy way of saying how the pilots talk to each other and identify solutions," said Peter Goelz, former managing director of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
He said it was not all that common after a major crash to have pilots to interview. "It's always good to have survivors," he said.
The challenge for authorities this week is to discover what decisions were made in the cockpit of the giant jet, where an experienced pilot was learning his way around a new aircraft and fellow pilots were supposed to be monitoring his actions. Questions include whether all four pilots were in the cockpit, as expected, or just the trainee and his trainer, both experienced pilots.
In addition, authorities were reviewing the initial rescue efforts after fire officials acknowledged that one of their trucks may have run over one of the two Chinese teenagers killed in the crash. The students, Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, were part of a larger group headed for a summer camp with dozens of classmates.
The girls had been seated in the rear of the aircraft, where many of the most seriously injured passengers were seated. Their bodies were found on the tarmac.
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