San Francisco Plane Crash: Pilots Attempted to Abort Landing Seconds Before Impact

By: Spencer Emmerson, Junior Staff Writer

Image courtesy of Nasser Al-Jowair

The plane crash that occurred last week in San Francisco was initially attributed to the plane flying at a speed that was “significantly below” its target speed. However, new information points to an attempted abort of the landing process by the planes pilots.

Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chief Deborah Hersman said that the aircraft’s speed was below the planned 254 km/h as it approached the runway.

[pullquote]”We are not talking about a few knots here or there. We’re talking about a significant amount of speed below 137,” she said.[/pullquote]

Hersman went onto say that it appears that the pilots had tried to speed up the aircraft, before making a failed attempt at aborting the landing a mere two seconds before touching down.

The airline Asiana is leaning towards ruling out any mechanical issues with their aircraft, which leads many to believe that physical error, played a significant part in the crash.

It was reported late Sunday that Lee Kang-kuk, the pilot in charge of landing plane, had only accumulated 43 flying hours in a Boeing 777 before this flight.

The investigation into the exact reasoning for the crash is still ongoing.

Spencer Emmerson is a freelance writer based in Toronto, Ontario. In October of 2012, he obtained his Honours degree in English from the University of Guelph. To learn more, please view his twitter account @TheSpinner24.

Sources:

BBC World News