Pilot Of Asiana Flight 214 That Crashed In San Francisco Still Undergoing Training – Reports

Fresh reports have said pilot of the Asiana flight 214, Boeing 777 which crashed at San Francisco airport, killing two passengers, was on his first flight in the jet.

A spokeswoman for Asiana says it was the pilot’s 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),” she said.

“He has a lot of experience and has 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.”

US investigators said the Boeing 777 was travelling much slower than recommended and a pilot asked to abort the landing moments before the plane smashed into the ground.

The flight data recorder also showed that as the Boeing 777 approached the runway its pilots were warned that the aircraft was likely to stall.

The request to abort the landing was captured on the cockpit voice recorder 1.5 seconds before the plane crashed, said National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman, who is leading the probe.

Her announcement came after a video obtained by CNN confirmed that the aircraft, carrying more than 300 people, clipped a seawall short of the airport and skidded on its belly on to the runway.

The footage showed the nose up with the rear of the plane hitting the ground first, before it rolled on to the concrete, abruptly bounced upward and then spun round 180 degrees.

Fred Hayes was watching planes land at San Francisco airport and filmed the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash landing.

He told CNN he shot the footage about 2km from the crash.

Two teenage girls who died when thrown clear of the plane as it landed have been identifed as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16, from China’s eastern Zhejiang province.

The girls, aged 16 and part of a school group from China, were found on either side of the plane near the “front middle”, said San Francisco fire chief Joanne Hayes-White.

The parents of Flight 214 victim, Wang Linjia, are comforted by parents of some other students who were on the Asiana Airlines jet that crashed at San Francisco International Airport.

A coroner is investigating whether one of the girls was killed by a rescue vehicle as she lay on the runway.

The girls were part of a group of 29 students and five teachers on a class trip from Jiangshan Middle School.

As investigators try to determine what caused the crash the accident left many wondering how nearly 305 of the 307 passengers and crew members were able to make it out alive.

Police officers threw utility knives up to crew members inside the burning wreckage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 so they could cut away passengers’ seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping from thick billowing smoke.

And amid the chaos, some urged fellow passengers to keep calm, even as flames tore through the Boeing 777′s fuselage.

“It’s miraculous we survived,” said passenger Vedpal Singh, who had a fractured collarbone and whose arm was in a sling.

Investigators took the flight data recorder to Washington, D.C., overnight to begin examining its contents for clues to the last moments of the plane before the crash, officials said. They also plan to interview the pilots, the crew and passengers.

“I think we’re very thankful that the numbers were not worse when it came to fatalities and injuries,” said National Transportation Safety Board chief Deborah Hersman on US network NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “It could have been much worse.”