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Even if the ILS was inop they still could have used the VASI for the glide slope. If the VASI was out then it would have been completely up to the pilot. So far I have not heard one word about the pilots. Kinda strange.
Even if the ILS was inop they still could have used the VASI for the glide slope. If the VASI was out then it would have been completely up to the pilot. So far I have not heard one word about the pilots. Kinda strange.
Strange indeed.
I heard a report a little while ago that the airspeed was 109 knots and the engines were at idle just before impact - or just before the reported last minute application of power and attempt at a go-round. Hard to fathom how that could have been. It was as though they thought the runway threshold was 1000' behind them.
I heard a report a little while ago that the airspeed was 109 knots and the engines were at idle just before impact - or just before the reported last minute application of power and attempt at a go-round. Hard to fathom how that could have been. It was as though they thought the runway threshold was 1000' behind them.
How is the VASI used for the glide slope?
VASI (actually its high-precison variant, PAPI) is an arrangement of lights that tell pilots what their glide angle is, kinda:
It's looking more and more like a garden-variety f.ck-up of a short landing. Plenty of those happen, but they're not supposed to take place with ATPs in intact aircraft under close-to-perfect weather and visibility conditions.
Don't know whether it has been confirmed but I heard the "pilot" was just a trainee! Yikes.
Not exactly - trainees don't fly heavies into San Francisco. The guy at the controls - can't seem to get firm data whether he was captain or first officer - had thousands of hours, flew passenger 747s etc., definitely a highly qualified pilot with heavy passenger aircraft. However, he didn't have that many hours in 777s - just 40 or so. This is not as weird as it sounds - that's how people get hours in type, how else can they? The pilot not flying had colossal experience in 777s, though. So more than one person appears to have dropped the ball.
VASI (actually its high-precison variant, PAPI) is an arrangement of lights that tell pilots what their glide angle is, kinda:
It's looking more and more like a garden-variety f.ck-up of a short landing. Plenty of those happen, but they're not supposed to take place with ATPs in intact aircraft under close-to-perfect weather and visibility conditions.
Oh, ok. Yeah, I know about those lights - didn't know they were called VASI. I thought he was talking about the vertical speed indicator.
It sure is looking like an incredible lapse in attention and judgement on the pilot's part. Anyone paying attention, including one of the frequent-flyer passengers on this flight that they interviewed, would have known they were way too low well before it got to this point - in time to take appropriate go-round action.
People casually walking off a burning, just crashed aircraft carrying their bags?!!!
The overhead bins opened after impact, and luggage was flying all over the place. People just gathered it up, and exited with it.
Here's a partial report from the NY Times. The pilots did come in too low, and were slow to realize it.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday that the pilots came in too slowly, took too long to realize it and tried to abort the landing seconds before the crash. The South Korean Transport Ministry said the pilot, Lee Kang-guk, had only 43 hours of experience flying a 777. It was Mr. Lee’s first time piloting a 777 into the San Francisco airport, an Asiana spokeswoman said. “For now, this itself should not be cited as if it were the cause of the accident,” said Chang Man-hee, a senior aviation policy official at the transport ministry. “Mr. Lee himself was a veteran pilot going through what every pilot has to when switching to a new type of plane.”
In a dramatic moment-by-moment account, the N.T.S.B.’s chairwoman, Deborah A. P. Hersman, suggested that crew members had little inkling of the impending crash until about seven seconds before impact, when one is heard on a cockpit recorder calling for an increase in speed. The call came too late. Three seconds later, an alarm sounded a warning that the plane was about to stall, Ms. Hersman said. One-and-a-half seconds before impact, the pilots advanced the throttles to get more power in an attempt to avert a crash. But before the plane could gain altitude, it hit the sea wall, snapping off its tail section before skidding to a stop and catching fire.
Ms. Hersman’s comments, delivered at a news briefing, were based on preliminary data provided by the Boeing 777’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. Other data from a private firm, FlightAware, indicated that as the plane lost forward speed, it descended much faster than normal.
I saw a very poor video of the crass and the only thing that seemed odd was that the plan was coming in way too low, almost on a level flight path. That would explain hitting the sea wall. News reports this morning also state that it was the pilots first landing in a 777. Kudos to Boeing for making a plane that held together so well in a crash.
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