It is hard to believe that the uninjured survivors of Asiana
Airlines Flight 214 had to go on a cargo elevator, go to a dirty and smelly
place, and then wait for hours without being adequately attended to. But one
man who was interviewed by ABC
after he had survived the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash, spoke about his
experience.
"They put us on some sort of cargo elevator and we are somewhere at a dirty smelly place. I had to wait five hours with no diapers and no food. After complaining hard, the authorities finally just brought me diapers."
“Later, they were moved to a more pleasant lounge and given crackers and fruit. But they were told that everyone on the plane had to be interviewed by the FBI before they could be allowed to leave.”
It would be interesting to know who, besides the FBI, was responsible
for the well-being of the uninjured survivors.
How much are airports and airlines prepared in taking care
of uninjured airplane survivors?
In his interview with ABC, Asiana Airlines
Flight 214 survivor Lee Jang Hyung said that the injured passengers of Flight
214 were taken to hospitals but that the uninjured passengers were “all waiting
for directions.”
Lee Jang Hyung was sitting with his 33-year-old wife Lee Jee Young
and his 15-month old toddler son in the front row in the economy class section of
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 when it crashed in San Francisco on Saturday.
Like many other passengers and witnesses, Lee Jan Hyung noticed
that something wasn’t right when the Boeing 777 was just still above the water and about to land.
"Just minutes before landing, I looked out the window and realized the plane's angle was strangely tilted. The seawater level did not look right. Suddenly, the plane's tail part hit the ground and the aircraft bounced upwards and then bam, it hit the ground again. This time it felt like the entire plane hit parallel, but tilted to the left. That pressure was huge. Very strong. I saw luggages fall from the top. And the plane gradually stopped. Until then, there was no warning. The drop happened without a warning.”
According to ABC’s report,
after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 had stopped its violent crash landing, the
passengers “ heard an announcement saying the plane has safely landed and
everyone should stay put.”
Lee Jan Hyung told ABC that he put the oxygen mask that had dropped down on himself and his 15-month-old son and that he ran to the door.
"But I was turned back to my seat by the flight attendants. Right when I came back to my seat, I saw smoke and fire outside the right window. The flames were spreading and smoke started to come inside the aircraft. I grabbed my wife and son and ran to the exit door. By then, they had slides ready.”
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 originated in Shanghai, China,
stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, and then flew a more than 10-hour direct
flight to San Francisco. During the flight, the four pilots on Asiana Airlines
Flight 214 worked in rotating shifts flying the Boeing 777.
Lee Gang-guk, the pilot who was making his first landing
with a Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport “was trying to get
used to the 777 during Saturday's crash landing. She says the pilot had nearly
10,000 hours flying other planes, including the Boeing 747, but had only 43
hours on the 777,” said Asiana Airlines spokeswoman Lee Hyomin on Monday
according to a Fox
News report.
“Co-pilot Lee Jeong-min has 3,220 hours of flying experience
with the Boeing 777 and a total of 12,387 hours of flying experience, and was
helping his colleague with the landing.”
According to NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman, the plane’s
target speed for a landing was 137 knots (158 mph).
The black box recordings that were taken from the plane wreckage and analyzed at a lab in Washington D.C. revealed that seven seconds before Asiana Airlines Flight 214 hit into a seawall, one of the crew members called on the pilots to increase speed. Information from the flight data recorder said the plane was going below the target landing speed, and the engine throttles advanced.
The black box recordings that were taken from the plane wreckage and analyzed at a lab in Washington D.C. revealed that seven seconds before Asiana Airlines Flight 214 hit into a seawall, one of the crew members called on the pilots to increase speed. Information from the flight data recorder said the plane was going below the target landing speed, and the engine throttles advanced.
“Four seconds before impact, a ‘stick shaker’ – a device that emits an oral and physical warning to the crew that the plane is about to stall – sounded off.”
Then 1.5 seconds before Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed,
the crew asked for the “go-around” and to abort and make another attempt at
landing.
Passenger Lee Jang Hyung had told ABC that he already knew
minutes before the landing that he “realized the plane's angle was strangely
tilted.” According to the blackbox,
however, the pilots had no discussion about anything unusual.
Was it because the pilot was training to land a Boeing
777 in San Francisco and having a “strangely tilted” plane was to be expected
on a first landing?
In addition to the first two questions on who was
responsible for the uninjured survivors and the question on the pilots’
communication, there are two more major questions that Saturday’s Asiana
Airlines Flight crash is raising.
In June, San Francisco International Airport shut down its
glide slope system which is a pilot navigational aid. Without the electronic
information aid, pilots have to rely on visual cues “to fly the proper glide
path to the runway.” While pilots are supposed to be notified beforehand when
the glide slope system is unavailable, was the Asiana Flight crew aware of it?
Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who crash
landed a plane in New York's Hudson River in 2009 explained that without the
glide slope system, “the automatic warnings that would occur in the cockpit
when you deviate below the desired electronic path wouldn't have been available
either.”
Was the glide slope system unavailable because of prolonged
maintenance or budget cuts? And why would an inexperienced pilot be flying a
plane without all aids available.
While the news about the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214
will soon disappear from the headlines, there is one more question and an
answer that JTNews 19 will be looking out for.
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 originated in Shanghai, China,
stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, and then flew a more than 10-hour direct
flight to San Francisco. During the flight, the four pilots on Asiana Airlines
Flight 214 worked in rotating shifts flying the Boeing 777.
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 had four pilots on board, 16 crew
members and 291 passengers including 141 Chinese, 77 South Koreans, 61
Americans, three Canadians, three people from India, one Japanese, one
Vietnamese and one from France. The nationalities of three people on Asiana
Airlines Flight 214 have not been confirmed so far. Out of the 291 passengers,
30 were children.
Asiana Airlines has identified the two girls that died on
Saturday after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed as Ye Mengyuan and Wang
Linjia. Both teen girls were among 35 Chinese students headed to California to
attend West Valley Christian School's summer church camp for three weeks,
according to the school’s website.
So far, a medical examiner still has to determine whether
one of the two girls killed died because of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash
or because she was run over by a first responder’s vehicle.
While most of the news media is focusing on who is to blame
for Saturday’s Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash, especially the pilot, JTNews
19 will keep an eye out for answers to the questions on why the glide slope
system was shot down, why one of the two girls died, and why uninjured
surviving passengers had to wait for hours and live on crackers and fruit after
the crash.
NOTE:
Please leave a comment below or send us an e-mail if you have more witness testimonies, tweets, or links about the treatment of uninjured survivors after the crash.
NOTE:
Please leave a comment below or send us an e-mail if you have more witness testimonies, tweets, or links about the treatment of uninjured survivors after the crash.
© Exploration International
Contact: Exploration@cox.net
Website: ExplorationInternational.com
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