Asiana Airlines Flight 214


Asiana Airlines Flight 214 was a scheduled transpacific passenger flight originating from Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea, to San Francisco International Airport near San Francisco, California, United States that crashed on final approach into Runway 28L of San Francisco International Airport in the United States on the morning of July 6, 2013. The Boeing 777-200ER operating the flight, registered as HL7742, approached too slowly and crashed at an angle into the seawall before the threshold of Runway 28L. The tail, main landing gear, and left engine separated, while the remaining fuselage slid along the runway before coming to a stop and catching fire.
Of the 307 people on board, three were killed; another 187 occupants were injured, 49 of them seriously. Among the seriously injured were four flight attendants who were thrown onto the runway while still strapped in their seats when the tail section broke off after striking the seawall short of the runway. This was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 777 since the aircraft type entered service in 1995, and the first fatal crash of a passenger airliner on U.S. soil since the crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 in 2009.
The investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the accident was caused by the flight crew's mismanagement of the airplane's final approach. Deficiencies in Boeing's documentation of complex flight control systems and in Asiana Airlines' pilot training were also cited as contributory factors.

Background

Aircraft

The Boeing 777-28EER involved, MSN 29171, registered as HL7742, was powered by two Pratt and Whitney PW4090 engines. The aircraft was manufactured in 2006 and was delivered to Asiana Airlines on March 7, 2006. At the time of the accident, the plane had accumulated 37,120 flight hours and 5,388 takeoff-and-landing cycles.
This was the 777's first fatal accident, second crash, and third hull loss since it began operating commercially in 1995.

Crew and passengers

Crew

The aircrew consisted of three captains and one first officer. Captain Lee Jeong-min, 49 years old, was in the right seat and filled the dual role of a check/instructor captain. As pilot in command, he was responsible for the safe operation of the flight. He had 12,387 hours of flying experience, of which 3,220 hours were in a 777. This was his first flight as an instructor.
Lee Kang-kook, 45 years old, was in the left seat and was the pilot flying. He was receiving his initial operating experience training and was halfway through Asiana's IOE requirements. He had 9,793 hours of flying experience, of which 43 were in a 777 over nine flights operating the controls under the supervision of the instructor captain in the right seat.
At the time of the crash, relief first officer Bong Dong-won, 40 years old, was observing from the cockpit jump seat. He had 4,557 hours of flying experience, of which 715 hours were in a 777. Relief Captain Lee Jong-joo, 52 years old, occupied a business-class seat in the passenger cabin.
After the crash, Bong Dong-won received medical treatment for a cracked rib; none of the other pilots needed hospital care.
Four flight attendants seated at the rear were ejected from the aircraft when the tail section broke off, but they survived. Twelve flight attendants were on board, ten South Korean and two Thai. Six flight attendants received physical and emotional treatment. The other six returned to South Korea.
NationalityPassengersCrewTotalDeathsSurvivors
China14101413138
South Korea771491091
United States64064064
Canada30303
India30303
Thailand02202
France10101
Japan10101
Vietnam10101
291163073304

Passengers

Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, both Chinese nationals, were found dead outside the aircraft soon after the crash after having been ejected from the plane during the crash. Neither victim was wearing a seatbelt. Experts concluded Wang and Ye likely would have survived the plane crash had they been wearing their seatbelts. On July 19, 2013, the San Mateo County Coroner's office initially determined that Ye was still alive when she was run over by a rescue vehicle and was killed from the resulting traumas. Later investigations concluded that Ye was already dead from severe injuries caused by being ejected from the aircraft.
A third passenger, Liu Yipeng, died of her injuries at San Francisco General Hospital six days after the accident. Liu had been wearing her seatbelt while seated in 42A, which is on the last row of passenger seats on the left side of the aircraft, immediately ahead of door 4L. During the crash, the back of Liu's seat rotated back and against the floor, leaving her exposed. Her injuries were likely the result of having been struck by door 4L, which separated during the airplane's final impact.
Ten people in critical condition were admitted at San Francisco General Hospital and a few were sent to Stanford Medical Center. Nine hospitals in the area admitted a total of 182 injured people. San Francisco Fire Department chief Joanne Hayes-White, after checking with two intake points at the airport, told reporters that all on board had been accounted for.
Of the passengers, 141 were Chinese citizens. More than 90 of them had boarded Asiana Airlines Flight 362 from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, connecting to Flight 214 at Incheon. Incheon serves as a major connecting point between China and North America. In July 2013, Asiana Airlines operated between Incheon and 21 cities in mainland China.
Seventy students and teachers traveling to the United States for summer camp were among the Chinese passengers. Thirty of the students and teachers were from Shanxi, and the others were from Zhejiang. Five of the teachers and 29 of the students were from Jiangshan High School in Zhejiang; they were traveling together. Thirty-five of the students were to attend a West Valley Christian School summer camp. The Shanxi students originated from Taiyuan, with 22 students and teachers from the Taiyuan Number Five Secondary School and 14 students and teachers from the Taiyuan Foreign Language School. The three passengers who died were in the Jiangshan High School group to West Valley camp.

Accident

On July 6, 2013, Flight OZ214 took off from Incheon International Airport at 5:04 p.m. KST, 34 minutes after its scheduled departure time. It was scheduled to land at San Francisco International Airport at 11:04 a.m. PDT. The flight was uneventful until its landing.
The instrument landing system's vertical guidance on Runway 28L was unavailable, as it had been taken out of service on June 1. A notice to airmen to that effect had been issued. Therefore, a precision ILS approach to the runway was not possible.
The flight was cleared for a visual approach to Runway 28L at 11:21 a.m. PDT and was told to maintain a speed of until the aircraft was from the runway. At 11:26 a.m., Northern California TRACON handed the flight off to San Francisco tower. A tower controller acknowledged the second call from the crew at 11:27 a.m. when the plane was away and gave clearance to land.
The weather was very good; the latest METAR reported light wind, visibility, no precipitation, and no forecast or reports of wind shear. The pilots performed a visual approach assisted by the runway's precision approach path indicator.
Preliminary analysis indicated that the plane's approach was too slow and too low. Eighty-two seconds before impact, at an altitude of about, the autopilot was turned off, the throttles were set to idle, and the plane was operated manually during final descent. NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman stated the pilots did not "set the aircraft for an auto-land situation... They had been cleared for a visual approach and they were hand-flying the airplane", adding: "During the approach there were statements made in the cockpit first about being above the glide path, then about being on the glide path, then later reporting about being below the glide path. All of these statements were made as they were on the approach to San Francisco..." Based on preliminary data from the flight data recorder, the NTSB found that the plane's airspeed on final approach had fallen well below its target approach speed. A preliminary review of FAA radar return data did not show an abnormally steep descent curve, although the crew did recognize that they began high on the final approach.
At a height of, eight seconds before impact, the airspeed had dropped to. According to initial reports from the cockpit crew, the plane's autothrottle was set for the correct reference speed, but until the runway's precision approach path indicator showed them significantly below the glide path, the pilots were unaware that the autothrottle was failing to maintain that speed. The instructor pilot stated that the PAPI indicated a deviation below the glide path at approximately above ground level, and he attempted to correct it at that time. Between, the instructor pilot also reported a lateral deviation that the crew attempted to correct. Seven seconds before impact, one pilot called for an increase in speed. The FDR showed the throttles were advanced from idle at that time. The instructor pilot reported that he had called for an increase in speed, but that the pilot flying had already advanced the throttles by the time that he reached for the throttles. The sound of the stick shaker could be heard four seconds before impact on the cockpit voice recorder. Airspeed reached a minimum of three seconds before impact, with engines at 50% power and increasing. The co-pilot called for a go-around 1.5 seconds before impact. At impact, airspeed had increased to.
At 11:28 a.m., the plane crashed short of Runway 28L's threshold. The landing gear and tail struck the seawall that projects into San Francisco Bay. The left engine and the tail section separated from the aircraft. The NTSB noted that the main landing gear, the first part of the aircraft to hit the seawall, "separated cleanly from aircraft as designed" to protect the wing fuel tank structure. The vertical and both horizontal stabilizers fell on the runway before the threshold.
The remainder of the fuselage and wings rotated counter-clockwise approximately 330 degrees as the plane slid westward. Video showed it pivoting about the wing and the nose while sharply inclined to the ground. It came to rest to the left of the runway, from the initial point of impact at the seawall.
After a minute or so, a dark plume of smoke was observed rising from the wreckage. The fire was traced to a ruptured oil tank above the right engine. The leaking oil fell onto the hot engine and ignited. The fire was not fed by jet fuel. All three fire handles were extended; these operate safety equipment intended to extinguish fires on the aircraft. The speedbrake lever was down, showing that it was not being used.
Two evacuation slides were deployed on the left side of the airliner and used for evacuation. Despite damage to the aircraft, "many... were able to walk away on their own." The slides for the first and second doors on the right side of the aircraft deployed inside the aircraft during the crash, pinning the flight attendants seated nearby.
According to NBC reports in September 2013, the U.S. government had been concerned about the reliability of evacuation slides for decades: "Federal safety reports and government databases reveal that the NTSB has recommended multiple improvements to escape slides and that the Federal Aviation Administration has collected thousands of complaints about them." Two months before the accident at SFO, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive ordering inspection of the slide-release mechanism on certain Boeing 777 aircraft in order to detect and correct corrosion that might interfere with slide deployment.
This was the third fatal crash in Asiana's 25-year history.