The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that a Southwest Airlines plane had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia. The plane flu from New York to Dallas, but safely landed after damages to one of its engines. The Flight 1380 was over southeast Pennsylvania when i made a dramatic turn back to Philadelphia. The plane is Boeing 737.
According to CNN affiliates, “one passenger was transported to the hospital.” The plane carried 143 passengers and crew. The statement of the Southwest stated that “we are in the process of gathering more information.” The National Transportation Safety Board sent team to Philadelphia to investigate, said CNN. Boeing would provide “technical assistance in the investigation.”
Published on Sunday July, 7, 2013 ( 4.07 p.m. Local Time Macedonia)
Update: Monday July 8, 2013 (8.54 a.m. Local Time Macedonia)
Update Thursday July 11, 2013 ( 12.11 a.m. Local Time Macedonia GMT+1)
Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, 16-year old from China’s province Zheijang probably returned in the seats in front of them all the flight magazine available on more than nine hours flight of Seoul’s Incheon International Airport toward San Francisco International Airport and waited for the final landing.
It might be for two teenagers flying together with other passengers on the Asiana Airline 214 flight to be for the first time at the USA ground. But what expected to be interesting summer in an education camp, turned to a tragic moment after the plane crashed during the landing at runway with the number 28 at San Francisco International Airport.
Two teenagers of China (both 16 years old) who where on the Asiana Airlline flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea to San Francisco, California, the USA died in the first fatal incident involving Boing 777 airplane that happened in San Francisko Air port, on July 6 at 11:27 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time). Two teenagers who lost their lives were on the board as part of the bigger group of students from China, flying to the USA to participate in an educational camp.
Following the information on the cause of the death in one of the two tragic victims of Asiana flight 214 and the possibilities the cause of death was caused by one of the emergency response vehicle, National Transportation Safety Board spoke person Deborah A.P. Hersman said, they will allow to the St Mateo Coroners that are responsible for conducting the autopsy to make any announcement.
NTSB Chairman Hersman on July 8, 2013 news conference said they are still looking at the videos related to the emergency response, the Coroner group is not yet determent on the cause of the death, we are reviewing the video, it was not conclusive and we need to let the Coroner to do their work.
Although, from the collected information, Chairman Hersman said during the news briefing on July 6, 2013, two victims, or the seats there were on the place, where located “toward the rear of the aircraft, that is significantly damaged and where a lot of critical injuries occur, as well”.
Washington D.C. based the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) an independent federal agency that investigates civil aviation happens in the U.S.A starts investigation regarding the Asiana flight 214 crash-landing at San Francisco International Airport.
In a media briefing on Asiana flight 214, and post on NTSB Twitter account updates from the investigation as twetted on NTSB Twitter account: @NTSB:
* Flying pilot was off duty on July 5th and at home *
1. Flying pilot had 8 hrs of sleep prior to flight & 6 hrs @ airport preparing for flight.
2. Instructor pilot had 8 hrs of rest the night before the flight & reported for duty around 2:20 pm
NTSB Chairman Hersman presented an overview of the radar plot for the accident airplane during the press briefing #Asiana214
3. Survival factors group noted that seatbelts in business class on aircraft had a shoulder/lap belt & travel class had lap only.
4. There were 8 exit doors on the aircraft – 4 on the left & 4 on the right.
5. There were 12 flight attendants on the accident aircraft.
6. NTSB investigators interviewed 6 of the flight attendants.The remaining 6 have not been interviewed.
7. A senior flight attendant observed smoke & fire outside the aircraft on the right side near row 10.
8. Salvage operations on runway will begin tonight. (Wednesday July 10, 2013)
Investigators of the National Transportation Safety Board hopes it will interview other six flight attendants and other survivors of the crash-landing of the Asiana flight 214.
On the latest media briefing Chairman Hersman had with the media on Tuesday July 9, 2013 and according to NTSB Twitter account, the pilot in the left seat at Asiana flight 214 had 9700 hours of total flight time. According to other post @NTSB Twitter account tweets with #Asiana214: “Human performance group documented the seating of the aircraft for survivability analysis, eight evacuation slides were removed from the doors for additional examination and the investigators are reviewing the evacuation process and will interview cabin crews to gain more information”.
At the news conference spoke person for the NTBS team working on the investigation, Deborah A.P. Hersman said they will speak with the crew of the flight after usual 72 hours rest, will do the flight test out the runway 28 left and will also look at emergency response, which included 23 deployed personal and nine vehicles, as well the action of dealing with the fire and firefighters.
The preliminary review of the audio tapes of the cock pit and data flight recorder give the investigators first information on what happen with Asiana Flight 214, although Chairman Hersman on a news conference said it is too early to determine what cause the accident. “Everything is on the table” said NTSB Chairman Harshman upon the question if the cause for the accident is a mechanical failure. She underline the investigation could endure from a year to year and a half to have proper answers and that the investigation NTSB team will be at the spot collecting evidence at least for a week. As NTSB press release said of July 6, Senior Aviation Accident Investigators Bill English will lead the full-go team as an investigator-in-charge.
According to the news conference of Chairman Hersman there is no information to his point weather the captain or the first officer flight the Asiana flight 2014 at the moment of the landing at the San Francisco International Airport. On the Asiana flight 2014 that crashed-landed at San Francisco International Airport there were four pilots, or two flying crews due to the intercontinental flight and the pilots (captain and a first officer) have rest corners in the aircraft. On July 8, 2013 news briefing Chairman Harshman said they will interview all four pilots. As on prior information to media, Chairman explained information of the cock pit voice recording, that records conversation inside the cock pit and records conversation between pilots in the cabin.
“A call of one of the crew members to increase speed was made approximately 7 seconds prior to the impact. The sound of stick shaker occurs 4 seconds prior to impact. A call to initiate a go around (to abort the lending and make the landing again) approach occurred 1,5 second before impact”, said NTSB Chairman Hersman, underlying that before the increase speed call happen the flight was clear to the visual approach to runway 28 left and “target speed for approach of the aircraft was 137 knots”, based on the data of 2 hours of cock pit voice recorder.
According to the news briefing on July 8, 2013, Chairman Hersman said the lowest speed the aircraft reached was 103 knots and that that 137 knots was the speed they want to reach prior to impact, based on the cock pit voice recorder tapes, that are not publicly released and are available only to the investigators.
The information NTSB Chairman Hersman said on the news conference of July 7, 2013 is from the 2 hours of cock pit recording and 24 hours of flight data recording that contains recorder 1400 parameters recorder of the entire flight.
“During the approach flight data indicated that throttles where at idle and air speed was slowed bellow target air speed. The throttles are advanced a few seconds prior to impact and engines appeared to response normally”, explained Chairman Hersman on the data they preliminary get from the flight data recorder.
The aircraft is Boeing 777-200 ER (extended range), the tail number is HL7742, the factory manufacturing was in February 2006 and the delivery was one month later. It was equipped with Pratt and Whitney PW4090 engines.
NTSB group that investigates the crash accident together with Federal Bureau of Investigation agents work on the ground to collect evidence and will work on preparing total station documents of the accident scene. The NTSB investigators work on and will collect section of the “air craft, to transport them in a secure location, identifying how they came apart, will look at landing gear” and how they separated and how they maintain structural integrity.
The investigators are working on the portion of the main landing gear, sliding engines, twisted motion, the position on wreckages, on the tail portion that is missing. Further, the NTSB investigators are “documenting the seats where occupant where seating, we are documenting the operation of the doors”, explained Chairman Hersman on July 8, 2013 news conference with american media.
She said that she was not brief for any safety alerts from the all known information so far, prior to the stick shaker and she denied any notion on possibilities for medical assistance during the flight to one of the pilots
“No information, that any medical services that are provided , any indication that prior to the crash has any hearth attack”, said Chairman Harshman.
Considering the prior pilot experience, their trainings with the air carrier of the type Asiana flight 214 was, Chairman Harshman explained that is something they are looking at, although the condition varies depending the countries. They are working on more information about the crew and they will deliver more information after the interviews with the pilots.
“Lee Kang Kuk, a co-pilot on the Asiana jet was in the process of transitioning from flying Boeing 737 model to the 777 model, South Korean Transport Ministry official Choi Jung Ho told reporters in Seoul. The Ministry is still investigating whether Lee Kang Kuk or the other pilot Lee Jung Min had control of the plane during landing because control is “easily transferrable” between pilots depending on flight situation, according to Transport Ministry official Choi Seung Yeon.
“Shares (020560) of Asiana, South Korea’s second-largest airline, fell 5.8 percent to close at 4,825 won in Seoul“, reports Bloomberg.
In a brief statement of July 8, 2013 South Korean Asiana Airlines said the plane “carrying twelve support staff, eight government inspectors and members of the Korean media has arrived on location in San Francisco. Its passengers have begun supporting the victims and their familes and assisting in the investigation”.
After the incident took place, the South Korean based air company issued two official statements published on the company Web page:
“There were a total of 291 passengers (19 business class, 272 travel class) and 16 – cabin crew aboard. The majority of the passengers were comprised of 77 Korean citizens, 141 Chinese citizens, 61 US citizens, 1 Japanese citizen, etc. for a total of 291 people”, stated in the official statement published on their Web page, Korean based Asiana Airlines.
The company which aircraft Boeing B-777-28EER (Aircraft Registration HL7742) was on fire shortly after landing at San Francisco airport stated in their press release the “they are investigating the specific cause of the incident as well any injuries that may have been sustained to passengers as a result”, announcing a full cooperation with all associated government agencies. The airline established an emergency response center at its headquarters where the relatives of those on the plane could have information on injured and all survived passengers.
The crash-landing of Asiana Flight 214 (Boening-777-28EER) happened during the plane landing on San Francisco International Airport, CA. According to several Web platforms and aviation safety Internet sites “landed short of the runway while on approach to runway 28L at San Francisco International Airport”.
According to http://PlaneCrashInfo.com/ site, “the tail section, landing gear, and both engines separated from the fuselage and a fire erupted. Debris was scattered from the ocean – front to the runway to where the aircraft came to rest”.
Twitter accounts and other social media platforms broke the news on Asiana Airline 214 flight crash on the USA ground. Aviation junkies (present on Twitter with the hash tag #avgeeks posted tweets on the Asiana Flight crash – landing. Co-author of the http://www.bagaloreaviation.com, as they stated “India’s largest aviation analysis website and amongst the top 15 aviation blogs in the world, Vinay Bashara, tweeted on his Twitter account with “#avgeeks everywhere; first fatal incident involving@ Boeing 777; testament to superb design #OZ214.
Meanwhile, according to http://www.bagaloreaviation.com site article: “The incident is the first fatal incident involving passengers and a Boeing 777. The last (and only other) major crash of a Boeing 777 aircraft occurred on January 17, 2008, when British Airways Flight 38 crashed on arrival at London Heathrow after flying in from Beijing. However, on September 5th, 2001, a ground fire broke out on a British Airways 777-236 at Denver, and one re-fueling operative was killed”, writes this Indian site on aviation industry.
According to the Web site http://www.liveatc.net, that was the first site to provide live and recorded audio transmissions of Air Traffic Control, with instant archive retrieval: “Asiana 214 checking in with tower on a 7 mile final for 28 Left, starts at 1:58 into recording.” Unabridged ATC audio can be listened at this link upon the registration with the site illustrated the events as they happened. The unabridged audio in length of 10 minutes and 37 seconds finishes with the words, probably from the control tower. (Note: The conversation here is transcript as person A and person B:) According to the http://www.liveatc,net site: “Asiana 214 checking in with tower on a 7 mile final for 28 Left starts at 1:58 into the recording”.
PA: Say 85? (9’43” on audio)
PB: Yes, this is 85 United…(unclear audio)… We see people and I think we see they are…live and walking around
PA: unclear…. You just said people are walking around….
PM: Some people are, just now…(unclear audio)
PA (unclear audio)…We have emergency vehicle responding? (10’09” on audio)
PB (unclear audio): “28 number, on the right side on the runway,
PB: (unclear audio): Excuse me, 28 left number between the runways, we can see two or three people out moving and apparently survived” (10’18” on audio)
Unfortunately, two Chinese teenagers were not among those who escaped the incident on the Asiana Airline flight 214.
This will be a third fatal crash for Asiana Airlines, since it has two fatal crashes, one in July 2011 and one in 1993.
Statistic available on the Web page: http://www.planecrashinfo.com on Fatal accidents by decades from 1955 through 2010 shows that total pilot errors lead in causes for the accidents. A presentation document of Boeing about Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Incidents from 1959 through 2011 published online on http://bit.ly/14VNClx shows that 20 percentage of fatal accident happened during the landing phase of the flight.
Related links: News conference of NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman, click on the link:http://youtu.be/XLYeUbeyfOg
Aleksandra Dukovska 