iStock Editorial/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Federal investigators are expected to release a report Tuesday identifying what caused last year’s fatal Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport.
The Boeing 777 came in to the airport too low and too slow, hit a seawall and cartwheeled down the runway in the July 6, 2013 crash. Three of the 307 aboard Flight 214 died, and hundreds of others were injured.
One of the three teens who died, Ye Meng Yuan, was run over and killed by a rescue vehicle as she lay on the tarmac.
The National Transportation Safety Board has been studying the crash and will make recommendations Tuesday on how to prevent similar accidents.
Asiana Airlines has acknowledged that its pilots failed to correct their approach to landing, but also blamed the maker of the jet, saying it did not automatically maintain a safe speed.
U.S. accident investigators made public a filing in which the South Korea-based airline asserted that the Boeing 777 had major design flaws that led the pilots to believe it would keep flying at the proper speed and that failed to warn the cockpit crew in time when it did not.
Boeing Co. countered in its own filing with the NTSB that the airplane performed as expected, and the pilots were to blame for the July 6 crash because they stuck with a troubled landing.
The pilots picked the wrong auto-pilot mode, which disengaged the throttle and gas pedal, Asiana has conceded.
While the pilots received a warning, they were unable to push the throttles and gain speed. It’s a worry that pilots rely too heavily on automation.
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