If a visitor listened only to the first hour of the June 24 NTSB hearing into the Asiana Airlines 777 accident at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on July 6 last year, no one could fault him for assuming the pilots bore the lion’s share of responsibility for the crash. That’s all the Board spoke of, at least initially. The two Asiana pilots were, after all, two high-time captains in command as the Boeing 777 slipped lower and lower on a PAPI-generated glideslope during a visual approach in severe-clear weather. The Boeing also slowed to as much as 30 knots below the targeted final approach speed with no corrective action from either pilot. When the pilots did finally attempt a go-around about four seconds before impact, their efforts were too little too late. The 777 ripped open after the main gear and aft fuselage struck a seawall near the approach end of SFO’s Runway 28 left. Three people died in the accident, two of them passengers ejected from the aircraft at impact that the NTSB believes were not wearing seatbelts. One hundred eighty-nine of the 304 others aboard were injured, 49 of them seriously.
