E-Paper
Asiana crash: Pilot was a trainee
The pilot of the Asiana plane that crashed at San Francisco International Airport was still in training for the Boeing 777 when he attempted to land the aircraft under supervision on Saturday, the South Korean airline said.
The pilot of the Asiana plane that crashed at San Francisco International Airport was still in training for the Boeing 777 when he attempted to land the aircraft under supervision on Saturday, the South Korean airline said.
Lee Kang-kuk was the second most junior pilot of four on board the Asiana Airlines plane. He had 43 hours of experience flying the long-range jet, the airline said on Monday.
The plane’s crew tried to abort the descent less than two seconds before it hit a seawall on the landing approach to the airport, bounced along the tarmac and burst into flames.
It was Lee’s first attempt to land a 777 at San Francisco airport, although he had flown there 29 times previously.
No US tours for now
Two school students from China’s east China’s Zhejiang province who died in Saturday’s San Francisco air crash were among 70 Chinese students and teachers travelling on the ill-fated aircraft to the US for a summer camp.
On Monday, relatives of the two teenage girls killed in the crash and another four relatives of two people who were injured in the crash boarded a flight bound for San Francisco
Authorities from Zhejiang province have suspended study tours after Saturday’s plane crash. Parents, according to state-run Xinhua news agency, had paid about 30,000 Yuan (about $4,839) to send their children on a two-week study tour.
