Federal investigators are asking several key questions as they continue their probe into Saturdays Asiana Airlines crash landing at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) that killed two passengers and injured dozens. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is hoping that its interviews Tuesday with the four pilots of Flight 214 will shed some light on the aircrafts erratic approach and the cockpits last-minute attempt to abort the landing before the Boeing 777s landing gear and tail struck a seawall at the end of the runway.
The NTSB will also examine how safety systems and procedures onboard enabled all but two of the 307 passengers and crew to escape Soccer Cleats with their lives despite severe damage to the aircrafts fuselage.Air traffic controllers at SFO had cleared Flight 214 for a visual approach to its runway late Saturday morning. Despite good visibility around the airport and no reports of onboard mechanical failure during the descent, the aircraft flight data recorder indicates that the 777 approached about 64 kilometers per hour slower than the target landing speed of 250 kph, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in a press conference Sunday. Seven seconds before impact one of the crew members called for the aircraft to increase its speed, according to information obtained from the cockpit recorder. Three seconds later, the aircrafts "stick shakera feature that vibrates the pilots control yokewarned of an incorrect approach angle. Finally, a crewmember initiated a Nike Football Boots go aroundan attempt to abort the landing and regain altitude1. 5 seconds before impact.
During an NTSB press conference Tuesday afternoon, Hersman indicated that her agency had interviewed three of the four flight crew members, with the fourth being interviewed as the press briefing was underway. She relayed that the pilot at the helm of Jordans For Sale the 777 during the crash landing was in the process of certifying on that aircraft (although he is an experienced pilot on other aircraft models) and was accompanied by a flight instructor (an experienced 777 pilot) in the co-pilots seat. Although information provided by the flight crew still needs to be verified against the voice and flight recorders, the instructor told NTSB investigators that the crew had set the aircrafts speed at 250 kph and thought that the 777s automatic throttles, or autothrottles, were maintaining that speed during the approach. At about 60 meters from the runway, he realized the autothrottles were not maintaining the correct speed and the aircraft was coming in too low, hence the belated attempt at a go around.
Hersman said that the autothrottles recovered from the wreckage were in the armed position, meaning that they were available to be engaged. The NTSB will be able to determine whether these were set properly only after checking the flight data recorder, she added. The NTSBs investigation encompasses not only on the onboard factors that may have led to the crash but also the performance of safety features on the runway, which is about 400 meters long and Timberland Australia sits four meters above sea level. The Federal Aviation Administration requested a flight test of the runways instrument landing system, which guides pilots to a safe approach, shortly after the crash. The systems localizer, which orients incoming aircraft with respect to the runways centerline, functioned properly during the test.
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