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 At a two-day hearing that starts on Tuesday, the National
Transportation Safety Board will examine if cockpit complacency
caused an Asiana Airlines Inc's jetliner with 307 people aboard to
crash land at San Francisco International Airport in July, killing
three and injuring more than 180.
Asiana Flight 214 from Seoul came in too slow and too low, causing
its tail to strike a seawall just short of the runway. The tail and
landing gear came off, and the plane caught fire and skidded down
the runway, strewing wreckage and people over a wide area.
So far, there is no evidence of mechanical failure of Boeing Co's
777, a plane never before involved in a fatal accident. Instead,
investigators have focused on the possibility that the pilots may
have mishandled the aircraft's automated controls in the final
minutes of flight.
Asiana has ruled out mechanical problems with the plane and has
described the pilots as experienced and competent. It has offered
victims initial compensation of $10,000 and has vowed to improve
pilot training.
The three people who died in the crash were teenagers from China who
were arriving in the United States for summer camp. Authorities
later ruled that one of the victims died from injuries she received
from being struck by a rescue vehicle. The crash has triggered
numerous lawsuits against Asiana and Boeing on behalf of victims.
The accident has fueled long-simmering concerns that pilots are
relying too much on computers to fly, and losing their ability to
manually land a plane when needed.
"It's exactly what they should be talking about," said Robert
Schapiro, a retired pilot who has flown internationally for major
airlines for 30 years.
"Automation is part of what made aviation so fantastically safe. But
pilots have become totally reliant on it."
The Asiana crash was the first fatal commercial airline accident in
the United States since 2009, when a regional airliner operated by
Colgan Air crashed in New York state.
Boeing declined to comment ahead of the NTSB hearing. Its 777
jetliner is a widely used, long-range plane that has logged nearly 5
million flights since it entered service in 1995 and holds the world
record for distance by a commercial aircraft.
MANUAL SKILLS
Part of San Francisco airport's automated landing system was out of
operation at the time of the crash. The control tower told the
pilots to fly a "visual approach," meaning they had to rely on other
systems, visual cues and manual skills.
The NTSB's two-day agenda is filled with pilot-training and
air-safety experts from Boeing, Asiana and the Federal Aviation
Administration, and pilots from Boeing and Asiana, including the
first pilot to ever fly the 777.
It also includes an academic researcher who has studied pilot
interactions with automated cockpit controls for decades. Nadine
Sarter, a professor at the University of Michigan, is also a member
of an FAA working group that recently recommended 18 areas where
safety could be improved, such as pilot skill and cockpit equipment
design.
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Autopilot systems are highly accurate and reliable, and some
airlines require pilots to use them until just before landing, so
that they can minimize the chance of mistakes.
But the increased complexity "sometimes results in pilot confusion
and errors," the working group said in the report.
Some pilots say they are increasingly programming flight controls
rather than flying the plane itself, which diminishes their feel for
the aircraft and their ability to respond when something unexpected
happens.
After the July 6 crash in San Francisco, the NTSB said the pilots
appeared not to notice that the plane was well below its target
landing speed and was dangerously close to stalling.
The Asiana crash has been compared to the 2009 Colgan Air flight, in
which the pilots did not respond properly to a stall warning as the
plane slowed dangerously just before landing near Buffalo, New York.
The crash killed 50 people, including one on the ground.
Days after the Asiana crash, the FAA issued new rules on flight
training that stemmed from the Colgan Air accident, that increased
the flying time required for co-pilots to 1,500 hours, the same as
captains, up from 250 hours.
The Asiana crash has also raised questions about how pilots are
paired on flights.
Lee Kang-kook, the pilot at the controls of the Asiana flight, was
attempting his first landing of a Boeing 777 jet in San Francisco,
and his supervisor, Lee Jeong-min, was making his first flight as a
trainer. It was also the first time the two pilots had flown
together, the NTSB has said.
A third pilot, part of a relief crew, was in a jump seat behind
them. The fourth pilot, also part of the relief crew, was in the
cabin.
According to the NTSB investigation, the pilots did not react when
the plane slowed below the target landing speed of 137 knots (158
miles per hour) as it approached the runway, speed essential to
keeping the jet aloft.
With less than a minute left in the flight, and the plane less than
1,000 feet off the ground, the speed slipped below 137 knots.
Moments later, at just 103 knots, the pilots tried to abort the
landing. But the plane was too close to the ground and struck the
sea wall.
(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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