Stressful??

Asiana pilot found landing 'very stressful'

By Kevin Fagan and Demian Bulwa

The pilot who crashed an Asiana Airlines jet at San Francisco International Airport in July was anxious as he made his final approach because the runway's key navigational tool was out of service, according to documents released during a federal hearing into the accident Wednesday.

Lee Kang Kuk, a veteran pilot who was landing a Boeing 777 for the first time in San Francisco, told investigators three days after the July 6 crash that he found making a visual approach, or hand-flying into the airport, "very stressful," according to the reports released by National Transportation Safety Board, which was conducting the hearing in Washington.

Lee, 46, said he was comfortable landing with automation - with the help of a piece of airport equipment known as a glide slope indicator, which guides airplanes on a 3-degree descent path to the runway. But that system was down in San Francisco at the time because of a runway expansion project.

The pilot "stated it was very difficult to perform a visual approach with a heavy airplane," according to a safety board report. "Asked whether he was concerned about his ability to perform the visual approach, he said, 'Very concerned, yea.' "

Three passengers, all Chinese teenagers, were killed and 181 were injured when Asiana Flight 214 slammed into a seawall short of the runway, broke apart and caught fire. One of the three who died was killed when she was run over by a San Francisco Fire Department rig that was battling the blaze, according to the San Mateo County coroner.

During the hearing, investigators said the Asiana plane had been flying at 118 mph when it hit the seawall, well below the desired speed of 157 mph. The problem was apparently due to the crew's inadequate use of the autopilot controls.

Investigators said the South Korean crew hadn't effectively monitored the intricate interplay between the airplane's autopilot and manual controls as the plane made its final approach to the runway following an 11-hour flight from Seoul.

At about 3 1/2 miles south of the runway, the jet's autopilot began to take the craft higher, so one of the pilots disconnected it to take better control. But as the plane got closer to the runway, the crew apparently didn't properly toggle between manual and autopilot controls, so by the time the plane was about one mile away from landing - and 24 seconds from impact - it was going too slowly.
At 11 seconds from impact, a low-speed caution bell was sounded in the cabin.

Boeing chief pilot Capt. John Cashman told the safety board hearing that the jet's controls are intended to take it into a controlled, semi-automated landing. Apparently the Asiana crew had opportunities to correct the problems as they approached SFO, but did not take them, he said.
"We accept the fact that pilots, as all humans, make errors," Cashman said.

Lee was an Asiana veteran with no record of accidents or discipline. But he was new to the Boeing 777, having begun to fly the aircraft with an instructor just three weeks earlier.

Before the crash, the pilot - referred to as a trainee captain - had flown just four round-trip flights on the 777. All originated in South Korea, and just one had a U.S. destination, Los Angeles International Airport.

His instructor on a flight to Narita, Japan, two days before the crash told the safety board that he was "not sure if the trainee captain was making normal progress because the trainee captain did not perform well during the trip," investigators wrote. "He said that the trainee captain was not well-organized or prepared, that he conducted inadequate briefings, and that he deviated from multiple standard operating procedures."

In addition, the instructor said, the trainee allowed his descent to go too low.

"He stated the trainee captain was not carefully monitoring, examining or focusing on the operations and he accepted the (instructor's) advice 'very lightly' and was not seriously focused on operating the right way," the safety board said.

After the SFO crash, a fire broke out in the right engine, penetrated to the cargo compartment and cabin, and eventually consumed the aircraft, investigators told the panel. Two escape chutes inflated improperly inside the passenger area, the safety board said.