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Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crash lands at San Francisco airport

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NTSB: Asiana 777 Significantly Below Target Speed On Landing
By John Croft john.croft@aviationweek.com

July 07, 2013
AsianaCrash-JustinSullivan.jpg

Credit: Justin Sullivan
Preliminary analysis of the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from Asiana Flight 214 reveals that pilots had issues with speed control shortly before the 777-200ER hit a sea wall at the approach end of Runway 28L at San Francisco International Airport on the morning of July 6.

NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman, during the NTSB’s first on-scene press conference on July 7, says pilots had discussed a target approach speed of 137 kt. But airspeed just before the crash was “significantly below” that value, “and we’re not talking about a few knots,” she says.

Based on the cockpit voice recorder, Hersman says at 7 sec. before impact, one crewmember called for an increase in speed, and at 4 sec. before hitting the sea wall, the stick shaker is heard. At 1.5 sec. before impact, Hersman says a crewmember called for a go-around. Earlier in the approach, the crew verified that the 777’s landing gear was down and the flaps set to 30 deg.

Based on the flight data recorder, Hersman says that “the throttles were at idle and airspeed was slowed below target airspeed”, adding that the throttles “are advanced a few seconds before impact” and the Pratt & Whitney PW4090 engines “appear to respond normally”.

Two of the 291 passengers were killed in the crash and 182 of the 307 passengers and crew were taken to hospitals with a variety of injuries.

Crash images and video indicate the 777 made an initial impact to the right of the centerline, losing its tail section and parts of the landing gear before sliding down the runway and then ground-looping onto the grass to the south of the normal touchdown area.

Controllers that morning cleared Asiana Flight 214 for a visual approach into San Francisco from Seoul, South Korea with 7 kt. winds from the southwest and 10 mi. visibility. Hersman says there were no reports of windshear “or adverse conditions”.

The Runway 28L glideslope system had been inoperative due to a long-term construction project, but the instrument landing system localizer and a precision approach path indicator (PAPI), a visual-based glideslope, were operational at the time of the accident, Hersman says.

In addition to interviewing the crew in the next few days, Hersman says investigators will look closely at Asiana’s flight training, operations manuals, cockpit configuration and procedures for stabilized approaches.

The aircraft was the seventh out of 12 777s that Asiana received between February 2001 and July 2012.
 
the instrument landing system was turned off due to airport construction (starting from June 1st), it is a useful guidance system but by no means necessary. With proper training, all pilots were supposed to land the planes safely by visual approach because the weather was very good. It appears that the Asiana 214 pilots made serious errors during the procedure. It needs years to determine the cause, but initial evidences are quite clear already.


the glideslope was not working so he made a visual landing
 
Teenage crash victims were talented students
(Chinadaily.com.cn) 16:20, July 08, 2013

This news site says they were run-over by trucks...!!!

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SF plane crash: Victim may have been run over - SFGate

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An autopsy was being conducted Sunday to determine whether one of the two teenage passengers killed on the Asiana Airlines flight had been run over by a San Francisco fire rig at the crash scene.

The 16-year-old girl was found near the evacuation slide from the left side of Asiana Flight 214 that crashed Saturday while landing at San Francisco International Airport. The girl was not identified.

San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said Sunday that her injuries are consistent with having been run over.

"As it possibly could have happened, based on the injuries sustained, it could have been one of our vehicles that added to the injuries, or another vehicle," Hayes-White said. "That could have been something that happened in the chaos. It will be part of our investigation."

Hayes-White said a runway video recording of the first seconds of the crash could help unravel what occurred. "Part of it was a pretty good vantage point," she said.

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said the girl did not appear to have suffered extensive burns.

The other girl appears to have died from injuries suffered when she was ejected about the time the tail of Boeing 777 hit the runway, he said. Autopsies, Foucrault said, were being conducted Sunday.

The dead girls, Ye Meng Yuan and Wang Lin Jia, were coming from China to the United States to visit Stanford University and then attend a three-week summer camp at a Christian school in the San Fernando Valley community of West Hills, officials said.

Hayes-White said 30 or more rigs carrying 225 firefighters and medics responded. Several fire trucks fanned out to douse the burning wreckage, and one crew led a hose line into the burning cabin.

"It breaks my heart that two 16-year-old girls lost their lives," she said. "I want to make sure that, just for everyone's closure, that the investigation is complete. The coroner will come to his conclusion."

Jaxon Van Derbeken is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com
 
This news site says they were run-over by trucks...!!!

Yes it was tragic! She might have been saved. Asiana airline sucked. The SF airport sucked also.

It reflected how bad the americans were in handling the whole case. The rescue team of fire fighter, ambulance were delayed for 20-30 minutes before reaching the scene!
 
Yes it was tragic! She might have been saved. Asiana airline sucked. The SF airport sucked also.

It reflected how bad the americans were in handling the whole case. The rescue team of fire fighter, ambulance were delayed for 20-30 minutes before reaching the scene!
Got any hard data on how other countries WOULD have handled the same situation better? That is 'would', not 'could'. Given your lack of aviation mishap investigation experience, and yes, I did have training in that, your mental gymnastics would be amusing to read.
 
Got any hard data on how other countries WOULD have handled the same situation better? That is 'would', not 'could'. Given your lack of aviation mishap investigation experience, and yes, I did have training in that, your mental gymnastics would be amusing to read.

1. the poor girl was run-over
2. the response time (amublance, fire-engines) etc

the people in there who are americans sucked - big time!
 
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