The pilot who crash landed the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday was on his ninth training flight on the aircraft, according to numerous news reports.
“He is a veteran pilot with almost 10,000 hours on other aircrafts like the 747,” ABC News quoted Asiana Airlines spokeswoman Lee Hyo-min as saying. “He was in the process of getting a license for the new 777.
She added: “He has flown the new 777 nine times before to Narita [in Tokyo], London, L.A., and more. But, yes, to San Francisco, with that specific 777 type, it was his first.”
Two people were killed and dozens injured when the airplane — flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea — apparently clipped a seawall at the edge of the runway as it was about to land, according to numerous news reports. The plane’s tail was destroyed and the mid section of the plane was “gutted,” according to an ABC News Radio report.
Federal investigators have recovered the black box from the Asiana Airlines aircraft. A review of the data in the black box will be crucial as investigators piece together exactly what happened leading up to the crash.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Asiana Airlines on Sunday said the plane did not have mechanical problems, the company’s CEO told reporters on Sunday, according to published media reports.
