Investigators Raise Questions About Pilots

from wsj


NTSB Chief Says Cockpit Crew 'Required to Maintain a Safe Aircraft'

NTSB officials on Tuesday examined the crashed Asiana Airlines jet just off the runway at San Francisco International Airport.

Even before investigators have finished questioning the Asiana Airlines 020560.SE -1.33% cockpit crew whose jet crashed in San Francisco, the National Transportation Safety Board ratcheted up signals that pilot error was the most likely culprit, prompting U.S. pilot-union leaders to issue an unusual public criticism of the board.

After providing new details Tuesday about the final minute of the flight—during which the plane was too low and not centered on the runway—NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman indicated that the jet's senior captain told investigators he believed automated safety systems would maintain the plane's speed and make the approach safe.

"He assumed the auto-throttles were maintaining speed," she said at a briefing.

"Let me be clear," Ms. Hersman added, "the crew is required to maintain a safe aircraft." In an apparent answer to critics who contend the safety board is rushing to judgment, she said "one of the very critical things that needs to be monitored on approach to landing is speed."

Ms. Hersman characterized her remarks as simple statements of fact, not conclusions. "We will not determine probable cause" at this early stage of the investigation, she said.

Still, her comments raised questions about the actions and performance of the three pilots who were in the cockpit of the Boeing BA +0.30% 777 as it crashed Saturday while attempting to land at San Francisco International Airport, hitting a sea wall and slamming onto the runway before bursting into flames. The crash killed two people and injured dozens.

The Air Line Pilots Association said it was "stunned by the amount of operational data" the board has released. Without the proper context and detailed analysis, according to the union, "prematurely releasing" such information "encourages wild speculation."

ALPA, among other things, called on the NTSB to determine if the pilots had adequate training to use onboard navigation aids for a visual approach, on a day when the primary ground-based landing aids for the strip had been turned off due to runway improvements. The union also urged the board to look at whether there were differences between what the pilots saw on their instruments, versus information subsequently downloaded from the plane's flight-data recorder.

Asked about the criticism from pilot groups, Ms. Hersman said the board's release of information has been "consistent" with its practices in past probes.

Assisted by interpreters and flanked by South Korean crash investigators, U.S. investigators have spent hours questioning the pilots and cabin crew. The investigators spent roughly 10 hours Monday in the pilot interviews and continued them Tuesday, but the sessions have been hampered by the limited English skills of the cockpit crew, said people familiar with the matter.


Eugene Anthony Rah survived the crash of Asiana flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport. He talked to WSJ's Monika Vosough about the moments of the crash and the emotional aftermath.

Lee Kang-guk, who was at the controls during the crash, was a newly minted 777 captain who had just 43 hours of flying experience on the Boeing model and was making his first 777 landing at San Francisco. He was a veteran pilot of other types of passenger jets.

On Monday, investigators questioned Lee Jeong-min, a longtime 777 pilot who, according to the NTSB, was making his first flight as a training captain.

A puzzling aspect of the probe is why the two aviators apparently didn't discuss the plane's eroding speed until about seven seconds before impact, according to the cockpit voice recorder—by which time it was sinking fast and flying some 30 miles per hour slower than the speed the cockpit crew had chosen for the final approach.

According to pilots and safety experts, most airlines require pilots to halt an approach—which means pulling up and increasing engine power to climb away from the runway—if the speed when they descend to an altitude of 1,000 feet or less varies by 10 or 12 mph from the predetermined target.


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The probe also has created friction between the safety board and Asiana over the airline's repeated public statements about investigative issues, said people familiar with the details.

As it typically does during the early part of an investigation, the board demanded that the airline not make any such statements, these people said. But Asiana has commented about whether the jet's engines were working properly, the condition of other systems on the aircraft and personnel details about the crew and the training they were conducting.

According to two people who have talked with investigators, safety-board leaders are angry about their inability to rein in Asiana's comments.

A safety board spokeswoman said "we are coordinating with them on the release of information."

Asiana said that in recent days, the safety board asked the company to avoid making "public statements which can affect the result of the investigation." The company said the board made the request without "pinpointing any specific comment made earlier" by Asiana.

One of the issues investigators are examining is why the 777 captain undergoing training may have misjudged the plane's angle to the runway as he made a visual approach in good weather. Asiana has said the pilot had flown Airbus A320s, a significantly smaller model, immediately before moving to train on the 777.

According to pilots and safety experts, it often takes pilots some time to get adjusted to the view from the cockpit of a new plane, which can differ significantly especially if the planes are different sizes. Safety experts said even the most advanced flight simulators provide only limited help in getting pilots accustomed to the different sight lines from the windshields of bigger jets.

In her briefing, Ms. Hersman disclosed that two flight attendants sitting in the back were ejected from the plane and ended up injured on the tarmac, but they survived. She also said the Federal Aviation Administration is pulling together information about landing patterns and potential difficulties other planes, especially 777 jetliners, may have experienced in recent weeks at San Francisco due to the runway work.

—Jon Ostrower contributed to this article.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared July 9, 2013, on page A4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Investigators Raise Questions About Pilots.