Asiana Airlines has an unusually high rate of aborted landings at San Francisco International Airport — something has become an issue for officials from here to Washington, D.C., since one of the carrier’s planes crashed at SFO.
Asiana’s number of aborted landings, or “go-arounds,” is six to eight times greater than would be expected given the airline’s total number of flights into SFO, according to sources familiar with the numbers.
The pilots on the Asiana flight that crashed July 6 called for a go-around seconds before the Boeing 777 slammed into a seawall short of the runway, apparently because the plane was flying too slow. Three passengers died and about 180 were injured.
After the crash, airline industry officials went through six weeks of records and found a “considerably higher” number of aborted landings by Asiana than would be expected, said our sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to make the information public.
The South Korean airline accounts for only about 0.5 percent of SFO’s 600 daily landings. Its go-around total, however, is well above that.
One such aborted landing happened July 19, just days after SFO reopened the runway where Flight 214 crashed. The Asiana jet pulled out of its early-afternoon landing just 14 seconds from touchdown.
Sources tell us the plane appeared to be coming in too low and too fast. The plane landed without incident 18 minutes later.
“Thank God nothing happened,” said Larry Mazzola, president of the Airport Commission.
Airport Director John Martin has told commissioners that the rate of aborted landings raised concerns about whether Asiana pilots are properly trained. “I believe that John has been pushing with Asiana because there have been previous issues with them not being able to land properly,” said Commissioner Eleanor Johns.
She said Martin has “gone above and beyond” what’s needed to keep the Federal Aviation Administration briefed about Asiana’s problems.
“John is proposing that Asiana no longer allow novice pilots to land and only have experienced pilots,’’ Johns said. The pilot at the controls of Flight 214 had never flown a Boeing 777 into SFO before and was being supervised by a trainer pilot, federal investigators say.
Martin also wants “to have some other experienced pilot — like an FAA official or a United pilot — on board as well,” Johns said. United Airline is a U.S. partner of Asiana under an international grouping called the Star Alliance.
Johns said Asiana’s pilots appear to be overly reliant on instrument-guided landings and lack the training to touch down manually. It’s unclear how Flight 214’s pilots were trying to land.
Back in Washington, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been meeting with officials from the aviation agency and National Transportation Safety Board about Asiana’s problems. She’s even touched base with South Korea’s U.S. ambassador.
“I was assured that they are on top of it and taking action,” Feinstein said.
When we asked Martin about Asiana, he told us in a statement Friday that his “top priority at SFO is safety.’’
With the airport’s instrument landing system out of service for repairs until Aug. 22, Martin said he has reached an agreement with Asiana and the Federal Aviation Administration to allow pilots to rely on a GPS system “as a suitable alternative’’ to help guide their landings.
“I am also pleased with the Korean Civil Aviation Authority’s commitment to evaluate additional measures,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration declined to immediately release Asiana’s complete statistics on aborted landings, asking that our request be put in writing.
For more M&R — including an exclusive interview with the son of the man killed by a bicyclist in a San Francisco crosswalk — read here.
No comments:
Post a Comment