Asiana Airlines Flight 214

The aircraft used on Flight 214 was a Boeing 777-28EER, registration number HL7742,^[5] powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW4090 engines,^[6][7] and originally delivered to Asiana Airlines in March 2006.^[8][9] The aircraft had approximately 36,000 flight hours and 5,000 cycles on its airframe.^[6]

On July 6, 2013, Flight 214 departed Incheon International Airport (ICN) outside Seoul at 5:04 p.m. KST (08:04 UTC), 34 minutes after its scheduled departure time, and was scheduled to arrive at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at 11:04 a.m. PDT (18:04 UTC).^[10]

At 11:26 a.m. PDT (18:26 UTC), HL7742^[5] crashed at San Francisco International Airport upon landing, short of runway 28L's threshold, striking the seawall that projects into San Francisco Bay.^[11][12][13]

Both engines and the tail section behind the aft pressure bulkhead became separated from the aircraft.^[16] The vertical and both horizontal stabilizers came to rest on the runway before the threshold, while the remainder of the fuselage and wings, after spinning in the air, stopped to the left of the runway about 2,000 feet (610 m) from the seawall.^[14] Eyewitnesses described a large brief fireball upon the aircraft landing, and a second large explosion minutes after the impact, with a large, dark plume of smoke rising from the fuselage. Evacuation slides were deployed on one side of the plane, and were used to evacuate the aircraft,^[16][17] and, despite damage to the aircraft, "many ... were able to walk away on their own".^[18]

The instrument landing system vertical guidance on runway 28L had been out of service since June 1.^[19] Arrivals were standard visual approaches, helped by the clear weather at the time.^[20] Aviation safety commentator Chesley Sullenberger said a project to increase the runway safety zone required pilots to temporarily rely on sight instead of electronics with automated warnings. He said investigators would consider whether unavailability of the electronic guidance system played a role in the crash.^[21]

This was the third fatal crash in Asiana's 25-year history.^[22] It was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 777.^[4][23] It was also the first fatal passenger airliner crash in the United States since the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash in 2009^[24]and the first fatal widebody passenger aircraft crash on American soil since American Airlines Flight 587 in 2001. The crash was the third hull loss of a Boeing 777 and the second crash of the type while on approach to landing after British Airways Flight 38 in 2008.

There was a crew of four pilots aboard, alternating in pairs. The pilots at the time of the incident were Lee Jeong-min, who has 12,387 hours of flying experience and 3,220 with the 777, and Lee Kang-kook, who has 9,793 flying hours.^[26] Lee Kang-kook was in training for flying the 777, and this was his first landing at San Francisco in this aircraft type, although he was an experienced pilot and had previously landed there in other aircraft including the Boeing 747. He had 43 hours of experience flying the B777-200.^[27][28]

San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne Hayes-White confirmed that there were two deaths;^[29] both were 16-year-old female Chinese passport holders^[2][30] with both bodies found outside the aircraft.^[3] Five people were in critical condition.^[3] Nine area hospitals accepted a total of 182 injured.^[1] Hayes-White told a subsequent press conference that all persons had been accounted for after reconciliation of two intake points at the airport,^[31] although an earlier report said that 60 persons were unaccounted for.^[1]

Seventy students and teachers traveling 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.^[24] Five of the teachers and 29 of the students were from Jiangshan High School in Zhejiang traveling together in one group.^[32] 35 of the students were to attend a West Valley Christian School summer camp.^[33]

One teacher received minor injuries, and the two deceased passengers were from the West Valley camp group.^[24][33] The coroner investigating their deaths and a fire department spokesperson have indicated that one of the two girls may have survived the crash, but could have been killed by a fire truck responding to the scene.^[24][34][35]

The airport was closed for approximately five hours after the crash,^[11][16][17] and incoming flights destined for San Francisco were diverted to the other major airports in the San Francisco Bay Area, or to Sacramento, Los Angeles or Seattle.^[36] By 3:30 p.m. PDT (22:30 UTC), runways 01L/19R and 01R/19L were reopened, with the runway of the accident (10R/28L) and the one in parallel to it (10L/28R) remaining closed.^[11][17] Approximately 24 hours later, the parallel runway (10L/28R) was reopened.^[37]

Asiana continues to operate its Seoul to San Francisco route as Flight 214.^[10]

Several passengers recalled noticing the plane's unusual proximity to the Bay, appearing as "walls of water"^[24] out of the port and starboard viewports, prior to the engines revving up in the final moments before impact.^[38][39]

Upon collision, oxygen masks were said to have deployed immediately. There were also reports of electrical sparking inside the cabin after the aircraft came to rest. Some passengers sitting at the rear of the vehicle escaped through the hole left by the missing tail section.^[40]

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation and sent a crew to the scene.^[1]

On July 7, 2013, NTSB investigators recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder and transported them to Washington, D.C., for analysis.^[41] The preliminary indications suggest the plane came in too short and hit the seawall as it attempted to land.^[16] The NTSB said it appeared that the pilots were flying too slowly on final approach and the throttles were set to idle.^[42] The sound of the stick shaker (warning of approach to stall) could be heard approximately 4 seconds prior to impact on the cockpit voice recorder.^[6] The crew attempted to go around 1.5 seconds before impact and the engines appeared to respond normally.^[43]

The coroner of San Mateo County, Robert Foucrault, is conducting autopsies on the deceased and is attempting to determine whether an emergency vehicle struck and killed one of the passengers who had been ejected from the aircraft.^[34][44]

• British Airways Flight 38 – the only other crash involving a Boeing 777

• Asiana Airlines
  • "Information for Incident Involving Asiana Flight OZ 214."
  • Template:Ko icon "OZ214편(7월 7일) 인천발 샌프란시스코 사고 관련 안내."
• Boeing: "Updated Boeing Statement on Asiana Airlines Flight 214." (Archive)
• Amateur video recording of the entire landing sequence (CNN exclusive). Retrieved 7 July, 2013.
• Communication between Asiana 214 and SFO Tower
• New York Times photographs of the crash site and debris locations
• "Obama grateful to first responders at jet crash". Associated Press. July 6, 2013. Retrieved July 6, 2013.