Asiana Airlines Says Pilot Of Crashed Plane Was On First Training Flight With Boeing 777

[FarCenter]

SEOUL (Reuters) - Asiana Airlines Inc said the pilot in charge of landing the Boeing 777 that crash-landed at San Francisco's airport on Saturday was training for the long-range plane and that it was his 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)," a spokeswoman for Asiana Airlines said on Monday.

The plane was travelling "significantly below" its intended speed and its crew tried to abort the landing just seconds before it hit the seawall in front of the runway, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday.

"He has a lot of experience and 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," the spokeswoman said.

Lee, who started his career at Asiana as an intern in 1994, has 9,793 hours of flying experience, but only 43 hours with the Boeing 777 jet.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/asiana-pilot-crashed-training--boeing-777-2013-7

[Mr. David]

1. I wouldn't let a inexperienced pilot land. I'd rather him sit in simulator for a couple of hundred

hours before he can attempt to land without PAPI.

Triple Seven is a entirely different kind of beast than a 747.

[Incitatus]

3. Even then land one for the first time without passengers, just the crew.

But I guess that would cost a little more than the airlines would like.

[Major Nikon]

4. Most likely he got his type rating for the aircraft in a simulator

The PAPI was operational before the crash. The crash took out the PAPI which is right next to the runway.

[friendlyFRIEND]

6. poster is confusing PAPI with ILS

ILS on the ground was not functioning at time of incident. Could have been shut down for maintenance or whatever... the OZ F/O needed to make a manual approach by hand. Big mistake to let the 747 driver take the stick. The experienced 777 driver shoulda driven here home.

Don't blame SFO, frequently ILS systems are down and pilots need to make a manual approach.

ILS is a series of ground based transmitters that communicate with onboard receivers that can be plugged into the auto-pilot to guide a plane on its approach pattern.

In addition, the plane stalled/nearly stalled. The approach speed was well under the 137kt required on approach.

We're talking pilot error boys n girls.

[Major Nikon]

7. The glide slope was out for airport construction and had been since June

The rest of the ILS was taken out of service for whatever reason earlier in the day. All of this is irrelevant since it wouldn't have been used for a visual approach anyway.

The most likely cause seems to be pilot error at this point.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. This would have been an OE (Operational Experience) flight.

A pilot normally will get his type rating in a simulator but once qualified will still be required to fly the actual airplane for a certain number of hours under the supervision of an OE instructor. Even if this guy was new to the airplane, why did the OE instructor not take control before the landing went south?

[tawadi]

2. Not good

It doesn't seem like enough hours of flying that particular plane to be responsible for all of those lives.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. This is the way it's done at all US airlines.

Pilots are not even hired at major airlines until they already have several thousand hours of flight experience. When they are trained on a new airplane they typically train for about six weeks, learning systems and procedures, and they have to pass several check rides in a simulator. The simulators in which they qualify for line experience are what the FAA calls Level D simulators, which means they almost exactly replicate the way the real airplane flies. The FAA regularly inspects them for accuracy and performance. They are amazingly realistic.

Once pilots pass the initial training course they are required to fly the real airplane for certain number of hours under the supervision of an instructor (Operational Experience), but by that time they should be capable of flying it with very little, if any, assistance. I can guarantee that anyone who regularly flies on any airline has been a passenger on an OE flight. These flights happen all the time and normally they are without incident. On the rare occasions where a pilot doesn't seem to be quite comfortable with the airplane he will be sent back to the simulator for more instruction. It's been done this way for years without any problems.

Whether Asiana has different requirements and different training standards remains to be seen, but since they have FAA permission to fly to the US, and are also a member of the Star Alliance, they would have been vetted pretty carefully by the FAA and by United Airlines, which is the "owner" of the Star Alliance. I would suggest that this pilot's OE instructor has a lotta 'splainin' to do...