Boeing 777 crashes while landing at SFO

[Unicorn Jeff]

After your $50k to get your hours in, you fly cargo planes for $18-20k a year. It takes much more to become a airline pilot (flying hours, certifications, working for a specific company and be promoted, etc). Military is the way to go. I was looking into this 5 years ago and talked to a couple family friends who are Delta and American career pilots. Even flying airliners, you fly little shit planes for a long time before you fly international and make money.

That's it? Holy shit. I figured it would be more than that for Cargo pilots. Also don't Commercial pilots get paid more than airline pilots?

[likeitfast55]

Snapped these on the ramp, that's one large jet.

[talisman]

SEOUL (Reuters) - Asiana Airlines Inc said the pilot in charge of landing the Boeing 777 that crash-landed at San Francisco's airport on Saturday was training for the long-range plane and that it was his first flight to the airport with the jet.

"It was Lee Kang-kook's maiden flight to the airport with the jet... He was in training. Even a veteran gets training (for a new jet)," a spokeswoman for Asiana Airlines said on Monday.

The plane was travelling "significantly below" its intended speed and its crew tried to abort the landing just seconds before it hit the seawall in front of the runway, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday.

"He has a lot of experience and previously flown to San Francisco on different planes including the B747... and he was assisted by another pilot who has more experience with the 777," the spokeswoman said.

Lee, who started his career at Asiana as an intern in 1994, has 9,793 hours of flying experience, but only 43 hours with the Boeing 777 jet.

Co-pilot Lee Jeong-min, who has 3,220 hours of flying experience with the Boeing 777 and a total of 12,387 hours of flying experience, was helping Lee Kang-kook in the landing, the spokeswoman said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said Sunday that it was too early to say whether pilot error or mechanical failure were to blame.

But she said there was no evidence of problems with the flight or the landing until 7 seconds before impact, when the crew tried to increase the plane's speed and the plane responded normally. The control tower was not alerted to any plane issues.

Witnesses said the plane on Saturday appeared to be too low as it approached the runway, hit the ground before the runway started and the impact sheared off part of the tail of the plane and possibly landing gear as well.

Asiana's chief executive said on Saturday that he did not believe the fatal crash was caused by mechanical failure, although the carrier refused to be drawn on whether the fault laid with pilot error.

[Vertnut]

SEOUL (Reuters) - Asiana Airlines Inc said the pilot in charge of landing the Boeing 777 that crash-landed at San Francisco's airport on Saturday was training for the long-range plane and that it was his first flight to the airport with the jet.

"It was Lee Kang-kook's maiden flight to the airport with the jet... He was in training. Even a veteran gets training (for a new jet)," a spokeswoman for Asiana Airlines said on Monday.

The plane was travelling "significantly below" its intended speed and its crew tried to abort the landing just seconds before it hit the seawall in front of the runway, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday.

"He has a lot of experience and previously flown to San Francisco on different planes including the B747... and he was assisted by another pilot who has more experience with the 777," the spokeswoman said.

Lee, who started his career at Asiana as an intern in 1994, has 9,793 hours of flying experience, but only 43 hours with the Boeing 777 jet.

Co-pilot Lee Jeong-min, who has 3,220 hours of flying experience with the Boeing 777 and a total of 12,387 hours of flying experience, was helping Lee Kang-kook in the landing, the spokeswoman said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said Sunday that it was too early to say whether pilot error or mechanical failure were to blame.

But she said there was no evidence of problems with the flight or the landing until 7 seconds before impact, when the crew tried to increase the plane's speed and the plane responded normally. The control tower was not alerted to any plane issues.

Witnesses said the plane on Saturday appeared to be too low as it approached the runway, hit the ground before the runway started and the impact sheared off part of the tail of the plane and possibly landing gear as well.

Asiana's chief executive said on Saturday that he did not believe the fatal crash was caused by mechanical failure, although the carrier refused to be drawn on whether the fault laid with pilot error.

43 hours? Hell, I think the state required that when I taught the kids how to drive a car. LOL!

[talisman]

Damn, 3rd person passed away from injuries.


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The third person to die from injuries suffered when an Asiana Airlines jetliner crash landed in San Francisco was identified as a 15-year-old Chinese girl who attended school with the other two victims.

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault on Saturday confirmed the identity of the third victim as Liu Yipeng.

He said that she was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital with head injuries after the July 6 crash and died there Friday morning.

Chinese state media said she attended school with the two 16-year-old girls who also died in the crash.

Liu Yipeng's identification comes a day after her death was announced amid the official confirmation that one of the other girls who died in the disaster had been covered on the runway in flame-retardant foam and hit by a fire truck speeding to the crash site, a disclosure that raised the tragic possibility she could have survived the crash only to die in its chaotic aftermath.

Police and fire officials confirmed Friday that Ye Meng Yuan was hit by a fire truck racing to extinguish the blazing Boeing 777.

"The fire truck did go over the victim at least one time. Now the other question is, 'What was the cause of death?'" San Francisco police spokesman Albie Esparza said. "That's what we are trying to determine right now."

All three girls killed were from China.

Ye Meng Yuan's close friend Wang Linjia was among a group of injured passengers who did not get immediate medical help. Rescuers did not spot her until 14 minutes after the crash. Wang Linjia's body was found along with three flight attendants who were flung onto the tarmac.

Moments after the crash, while rescuers tried to help passengers near the burning fuselage, Wang Linjia and some flight attendants lay in the rubble almost 2,000 feet away. A group of survivors called 911 and tried to help them.

Survivors said that after escaping the plane, they sat with at least four victims who appeared to be seriously hurt. They believe one of them was one of the girls who died.

Cindy Stone, who was in that group, was recorded by California Highway Patrol dispatchers calling in for help: "There are no ambulances here. We've been on the ground 20 minutes. There are people lying on the tarmac with critical injuries, head injuries. We're almost losing a woman here. We're trying to keep her alive."

San Francisco fire spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said Friday that when airport personnel reached the group near the seawall, Linjia was dead. She did not know when the girl had died.

Several flight attendants remain hospitalized.

Talmadge also confirmed that an Associated Press photograph of a body under a yellow tarp near the burned-out jet was Ye Meng Yuan.

The photo, taken from above, shows firefighters looking down at the tarp, and there are truck track marks leading up to it.

Police said the teenager was covered in foam that rescuers had sprayed on the burning wreckage. When the truck moved while battling the flames, rescuers discovered her body, Esparza said.

"The driver may not have seen the young lady in the blanket of foam," said Ken Willette of the National Firefighter Protection Agency, which sets national standards for training airfield firefighters. "These could be factors contributing to this tragic event."

He said fire trucks that responded to the Asiana crash would have started shooting foam while approaching the fuselage from 80 or 100 feet away. The foam was sprayed from a cannon on the top of the truck across the ground to clear a safe path for evacuees. That was supposed to create a layer of foam on the ground that is several inches high before the truck gets to the plane.

The victims were close friends and top students, looking forward to spending a few weeks at a Christian summer camp in California, where they planned to practice English and boosting their chances of attending a U.S. college.

Their parents were flown to San Francisco after their deaths where the Chinese consulate was caring for them.

The crash-landing occurred after the airliner collided with a rocky seawall just short the runway. Dozens of passengers were hurt. There were 182 survivors taken to hospitals, though most suffered only minor injuries.

So far, an investigation indicates the pilots, a trainee and his instructor, failed to realize until too late that the aircraft was dangerously low and flying too slow.

Nothing disclosed so far by the National Transportation Safety Board investigators indicates any problems with the Boeing 777's engines, computers or automated systems.

Also, San Francisco airport officials said that the runway where the jet crashed was reopened Friday evening, and all airlines would resume normal schedules immediately.

[Strychnine]

Proper approach vs what actually happened.

[Vertnut]

Damn lucky there weren't a lot more dead.

[talisman]

That gif is incredible.

[Vertnut]

That gif is incredible.

I'll bet it was a helluva ride when that big bitch did a 360.

It also looks like he may have made the runway had he not pulled back on the stick so drastically, dropping the ass-end.

[GhostTX]

Proof the media are idiots:

[Sean88gt]

Damn lucky there weren't a lot more dead.

Like all.

If it would have hit just a hair sooner, or flipped, the story would have been far worse.

[dcs13]

Proof the media are idiots:

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. How stupid they are to be "first"

[Unicorn Jeff]

The airline is looking to sue the news station and possibly the NTSB.

[Trip McNeely]

I wish more people would start suing the media. Maybe then they would be more of a media and less of fucking irresponsible knuckle draggers creating drama and telling lies.