Tuesday,  July 09, 2013 • Vol. 14--No. 352 • 31 of 35

(Continued from page 30)

credibly, only two of the 307 people on board died, and most of the survivors suffered little or no injuries.
• The head of the National Transportation Safety Board on Monday revealed additional details about the final seconds before Saturday's crash but what remained unknown was why the pilots didn't react sooner.
• Some of those answers are expected to come Tuesday, after details emerge from U.S. and Korean joint interviews with the pilots that began Monday.
• Choi Jeong-ho, a senior official for South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, told reporters in a briefing Tuesday in South Korea that investigators from both countries quizzed two of the four Asiana pilots, Lee Gang-guk and Lee Jeong-min, on Monday, and they planned to quiz the two other pilots and air controllers Tuesday.
• ___

Air crash revives concern that automation is eroding airline pilots' flying skills

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The crash landing of a South Korean airliner in San Francisco has revived concerns that airline pilots get so little opportunity these days to fly without the aid of sophisticated automation that their stick-and-rudder skills are eroding.
• The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident, is a long way from reaching a conclusion as to its probable cause. While the focus of their investigation could still shift, information released by the board thus far appears to point to pilot error.
• What is known is that Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed short of its target runway Saturday at San Francisco International Airport in broad daylight under near ideal weather conditions. The Boeing 777's engines are still being examined, but they appear to have been receiving power normally. And the flight's pilots didn't report any mechanical issues or other problems.
• But the plane was traveling far too slowly in the last half-minute before the crash, slow enough to trigger an automated warning of an impending aerodynamic stall.
• The wide-bodied jet should have been traveling at 158 mph as it crossed the runway threshold. Instead, the speed dropped to as low as 118 mph before the plane struck a rocky seawall short of the runway. The plane careened briefly and then pancaked down. Two of the 307 people on board were killed, and dozens more injured.
• ___

(Continued on page 32)

© 2013 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.