Investigations on the Asiana Airlines fatal crash are still ongoing, but airline officials have confirmed that the pilot of Flight 214 was making his first Boeing 777 landing at the San Francisco International Airport.
Lee Hyomin, the spokeswoman of Asiana Airlines, told the Associated Press that flight 214 pilot Lee Gang-guk was still getting used to landing the Boeing 777. According to Hyomin, the pilot had already clocked almost 10,000 hours flying other planes, including Boeing 747, but only had 43 hours flying the 777.
Conversely, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of South Korea said that co-pilot Lee Jeong-min is a seasoned pilot, clocking more than 12,390 hours of flying experience, including 3,220 hours flying the Boeing 777. Lee Jeong-min was actually tasked to help Lee Gang-guk get accustomed to the 777, the Asiana Airlines added.
The other two pilots were also described as veterans who both had close to 10,000 hours of flying experience.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said that they are planning to interview all four pilots on Monday to explore whether the lack of experience of the pilot handling the Boeing 777 played an integral role in the crash landing.
Examination of the cockpit voice recorder of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 hinted that the pilot tried to abort the landing approximately 1.5 seconds before the plane crashed on the runway of the San Francisco International Airport, Hersman also added.
"The plane's voice and flight data recorders show that the flight from South Korea was coming in too slow and too low and that the pilots appear to have increased speed seven seconds before impact," Hersman said during a press conference. "A stall warning sounded four seconds before the crash, and the crew then made an internal decision to initiate a go-around 1.5 seconds to impact."
But while the last-second action of the pilot provided a clue, Hersman declined to cofirm that pilot error caused the crash that killed two people and left 182 other passengers injured on Saturday.
"I would discourage anyone from drawing any conclusions at this point," Hersman said.
Investigators from South Korea and the NTSB are scheduled to conduct a joint investigation on Monday; Lee Kang-guk is expected to be scrutinized by both parties.