The pilot of the Asiana Airlines plane crash at San Francisco airport was training with the Boeing 777 to the airport for the first time, the airlines says.
"It was Lee Kang-kook's maiden flight to the airport with the jet... He was in training. Even a veteran gets training (for a new jet)," a spokeswoman for Asiana Airlines said according to Reuters.
According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, Flight 214 was travelling "significantly below" its intended speed and its crew tried to abort the landing right before it hit the seawall in front of the runway on Saturday.
"He has a lot of experience and previously flown to San Francisco on different planes including the B747... and he was assisted by another pilot who has more experience with the 777," the spokeswoman said.
Lee has been a pilot for the airline for 19 years. He started out as an intern in 1994 and has 9,793 hours of flying experience but he was just getting started with the Boeing 777. He only had 43 hours of flight time with the jet.
According to the Asiana spokeswoman, Kang-kook was being helped by co-pilot, Lee Jeong-min, who has 3,220 hours of flying experience with the Boeing 777. He has 12,387 total hours of flying experience. He was assisting Kang-kook with the landing.
The National Transportation Safety Board says that it is still too early to confirm if the accident was caused by pilot error or a mechanical failure but chairwoman Deborah Hersman says there was no evidence of any problems with the flight or landing until just seven seconds before it crashed. At that time, the crew tried to increase the plane's speed. The control tower never got a message that the plane had issues.
Witnesses and passengers said the plane seemed to be too low as it approached the runway. The jet hit the ground before the runway which caused a section of the tail to rip off the plane. The Asiana CEO doesn't think the accident occurred due to a mechanical error but he would not confirm that it was the pilot's fault.
Two people were killed and more than 180 were injured when the flight crashed on Saturday. There were 307 people on board the plane, including 16 crew members.
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