Asiana Airlines Flight 214

**Asiana Airlines Flight 214** was a passenger flight from Incheon International Airport, South Korea, to San Francisco International Airport, United States. On July 6, 2013, the aircraft crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport. There were 307 people (291 passengers and 16 crew) aboard the plane. Two passengers were killed and 182 were hurt. A third passenger also died, but it is possible that she survived the crash and was run over by a fire truck. When the plane was coming in to land, the engines were idle and the plane was flying much slower than it should have been. 1.5 seconds before the plane crashed, the pilots tried a go-around, but they were too late.

The aircraft which crashed was a Boeing 777-200LR, and it had been used by Asiana Airlines since March 2006. The crash was the first time anyone ever died aboard a Boeing 777. The plane was delivered to Asiana Airlines in March 2006.  The aircraft had flown for about 36,000 hours.

On July 6, 2013, at 11:26 PDT (18:26 UTC), the aircraft crashed at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) when it was landing. It landed before the start of runway 28L, and it hit the seawall in San Francisco Bay.

The Instrument Landing System (ILS) on runway 28L had been out of order since June 11.  Therefore, the planes were landed by the pilot, without a lot of help from the autopilot; the clear weather made it easier to do this.  Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who saved US Airways Flight 1549, said that investigators would think about whether the ILS being unavailable could have helped the crash happen.

This was only the third  crash in Asiana's history. It was also the first fatal airliner crash in the United States since the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash in 2009.

## Passengers and crew
Four pilots were on board the plane. The pilots flying when the plane crashed were Lee Jeong-min, 49, who has flown for 12,387 hours (3,220 with the 777) and Lee Kang-kook, 45, who has flown for 9,793 hours including 43 hours on 777, according to the South Korean transport ministry. Lee Kang-kook being trained to fly the 777, and this was his first landing at San Francisco in the aircraft. However, he had landed at San Francisco before in a Boeing 747. Lee Kang-kook only had 43 hours of experience with the 777 before the crash.

Chief of San Francisco Fire Department, Joanne Hayes-White, said that two people died. Both of them were Chinese and 16 years old. Both of their bodies were found inside the plane, near the tail break Only one person was missing.

Seventy students and teachers going to the United States for summer camp were among the Chinese passengers. Thirty of the students and teachers were from Shanxi, and the others were from Zhejiang. 35 of the students were going to a West Valley Christian School summer camp.

One teacher had small injuries, and the two passengers who died were supposed to be going to the West Valley camp.

When the plane hit the ground, it was said that the oxygen masks dropped right away. After the aircraft stopped, some passengers said that there were sparks inside the cabin.

Just after the crash, the pilots told the flight crew not to  the passengers. However, the pilots later told them to evacuate, and the crew did so quickly. The crew also helped several passengers who could not escape the plane alone. One of the pilots carried out a passenger with an injured leg.

During the evacuation, a fire began in the cabin, near the 10th row. One of the pilots put it out.

## Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board has started an investigation. An NTSB team has been sent to San Francisco. The sound of the stick shaker (when the yoke vibrates to warn pilots that the plane may stall) could be heard about 4 seconds before the crash on the cockpit voice recorder. The crew tried a go-around 1.5 seconds before the plane hit the ground and the engines seemed to have worked fine.

On July 7, 2013, NTSB investigators found the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. They were moved to Washington, D.C. to be analysed. The NTSB said that the pilots tried to stop the landing and go around 1.5 seconds before the crash. He and someone from the fire department have said that one of the girls who died might have survived the crash but might have been killed after being run over by a fire truck.

## After the crash
This was the very first time that anyone died on a Boeing 777 aircraft.

The airport was closed for about five hours after the crash.

Asiana is still flying from Seoul to San Francisco, but after the incident the flight number was changed to 212.

## Related pages 
* Boeing 777
* Asiana Airlines

## References
## Other websites
* Video of the plane landing  (CNN exclusive). Retrieved 7 July, 2013.
* Asiana Airlines
** "Information for Incident Involving Asiana Flight OZ 214."
**  "OZ214편(7월 7일) 인천발 샌프란시스코 사고 관련 안내."
* "Updated Boeing Statement on Asiana Airlines Flight 214." (Archive)
* Asiana 214 and SFO Tower speaking
* New York Times photographs of the crash
*