Two killed and 180 injured in San Francisco airport crash
The pilot of the plane which crashed at San Francisco airport on Saturday killing two people and injuring 180 was still "in training" for the Boeing 777.
Lee Kang-kuk was the most junior pilot of four on board the Asiana Airlines plane with only 43 hours’ experience flying the 777 when he attempted to land under supervision the South Korean airline told Reuters.
The plane’s crew tried to abort the landing less than two seconds before it hit a seawall, ripped off the tail and then burst into flames on the tarmac.
The South Korean transport ministry official Choi Seung-youn said it was his first attempt to land a 777 at San Francisco, though he had flown there 29 times previously on different types of aircraft and had accumulated a total of 9,793 flying hours.
Two Chinese teenagers were killed and more than 180 injured in the crash, which is the first fatal accident involving the Boeing 777 since it started service in 1995.
Information collected from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder indicated that there were no signs of trouble until seven seconds before impact, when the crew tried to accelerate, said chairwoman of the US National Transportation Safety Board, Deborah Hersman.
A stall warning in which the cockpit controls begin to shake activated four seconds before impact, and the crew tried to abort the landing 1.5 seconds before crashing, Hersman said.
The San Francisco Fire Department said that one of the teenagers may have been run over by an emergency vehicle as first responders scrambled to the scene.
"One of the deceased did have injuries consistent with those of having been run over by a vehicle," fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said. "Many agencies were on the field yesterday."
Arrivals and departures had been suspended at San Francisco airport cancelling more than 425 flights with some diverted to other airports like Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose and Los Angeles.
By Sunday three of the four runways were operating.
United and Virgin America both announced that they would allow customers ticketed to fly to, from or through San Francisco up to Monday to change their flights at no cost.
More than 30 people remain in hospital – eight in a critical condition, including two with paralysis from spinal injuries, according to hospital officials.
The Asiana flight was flying to San Francisco from Seoul with 291 passengers and 16 crew members on board.
Several large groups of Chinese students were among the passengers.
"For now, we acknowledge that there were no problems caused by the 777-200 plane or (its) engines," Yoon Young-doo, the president and CEO of the airline, told reporters on Sunday at the company’s headquarters on the outskirts of Seoul.
Diane
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