Asiana Flight 214 pilot turned off plane's auto pilot despite concerns landing at ...

Posted: 12/11/2013 06:19:46 AM PST

Updated: 12/11/2013 08:34:01 AM PST

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WASHINGTON -- The National Transportation Safety Board began its investigative hearing into the crash landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 Wednesday morning to learn the cause of the crash and ensure 'the circumstances are not repeated,' the head of the NTSB said at the opening of a nearly 12-hour hearing.

NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman directed her opening comments to the more than 200 victims -- and the families of the three teenage girls killed in the July 6 crash at San Francisco International Airport -- and said, 'We recognize that your lives were forever changed when the crash occurred, and we know that nothing can replace the loss of your loved ones or repair the trauma of a life-changing injury. But we do have the opportunity today to ensure that the lessons of this tragedy are well-learned and that the circumstances are not repeated.'

The deaths and injuries occurred after a nearly 11-hour flight from Seoul and represented the first fatality involving a commercial airliner in the United States since the February 2009 crash of Colgan Air near Buffalo, New York that claimed 50 lives.

Jeong-kwen Park, a member of South Korea's Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, apologized to the victims of Asiana Flight 214 and said, 'We are deeply sorry. We are committed to doing everything we can to prevent such an accident from happening again.'

During Wednesday's nearly 12-hour hearing, Hersman emphasized that the NTSB board 'does not assign fault or blame for an accident or incident. ... Questions related to fault, outside litigation, legal liability, or cause of, or manner of death will not be permitted.'

Bill English, the NTSB's investigator-in-charge of the crash, said there were no anomolies with the Boeing 777 before the crash -- and said the plane's auto throttles were not controlling the plane's speed during its descent into SFO.

He then invited anyone to leave the hearing room before showing a spectacular surveillance video of the crash, followed by a still image of the smoking wreckage.

John Cashman, a retired Boeing 777 pilot, later testified that 'the pilot is the final authority of the operation' of the aircraft.

As the hearing began, the NTSB released documents surrounding its investigation, including two interviews with

Asiana trainee pilot Lee Kang Kuk -- who was making his maiden landing at SFO in a Boeing 777. Kang Kuk told investigators that he was nervous about landing at SFO, especially because the Federal Aviation Administration had issued a notice to pilots that the airport's glideslope that helps planes land had been temporarily taken out of service for runway repairs.

'He said it was very stressful, very difficult to perform a visual approach with a heavy airplane, always,' according to the NTSB's summary of Kang Kuk's interviews. 'From the planning phase it was very stressful because the glideslope was very, very helpful to making an approach. ... That had been 'a very stressful factor.' Asked whether he was concerned about his ability to perform the visual approach, he said 'very concerned, yea.' He said the approach itself was difficult, so every part was stressful. He could not single out a particular part. Even landing and taxiing to the gate was stressful, because it was very busy and the controllers were very busy and spoke quickly.'

The interview directly addressed widespread speculation about whether South Korean cockpit culture -- and the relationship between the trainee pilot and his instructor -- were factors.

'Asked whether Asiana had a policy encouraging junior pilots to speak up if they felt uncomfortable about something, he said yes,' according to the NTSB's interview.

Asked if he felt that he had the authority to commence a go-around, Kang Kuk said, 'Go around thing. That is very important thing. But the instructor pilot got the authority. Even I am on the left seat, that is very hard to explain, that is our culture.'

He was supervised by a senior pilot, Lee Jungmin, who was making his inaugural flight as a trainer.

The plane also carried two additional pilots for the overnight trans-Pacific flight. None of them is scheduled to speak at the NTSB hearing.

The NTSB could take months to conclude its investigation that likely will result in recommendations to the FAA, which regulates pilot and airline crew procedures, according to aviation experts.

Since the crash, investigators have focused on two key areas: the actions of the flight crew and flight attendants just before the crash, and what led to the deaths of the three victims.

Immediately after the crash of the Boeing 777, NTSB investigators began probing whether the pilots relied too much on their cockpit control settings during the final 34 seconds of their botched landing, a phenomenon known as 'automation dependency' or 'automation complacency,' in which pilots assume their control settings will properly guide the plane.

Flight 214 had 291 passengers on board -- most of them from China and South Korea -- when it tried to land on a clear Saturday morning.

The plane came in too low and too slow, causing its tail to slam into the sea wall that abuts SFO's Runway 28 Left, sending the plane careening down the runway and into a 330-degree spin before it burst into flames.

Of the 307 passengers and crew, more than 200 immediately were taken to hospitals by rescue workers.

Wang Linjia, 16, and her Chinese school classmate, 16-year-old Ye Mengyuan, were both ejected from the plane when the tail snapped off in the crash. Wang was found dead near the back of the plane while Ye's body inexplicably ended up in front of the left wing, where she was then covered in flame-retardant foam and later killed by a San Francisco Fire Department truck responding to the crash.

Fellow passenger Liu Yipeng, 15, was discovered in the wreckage still strapped in her seat, and later died from her injuries.

NTSB investigators confirmed that an emergency evacuation slide deployed inside the cabin after the crash, hindering the evacuation and rescue effort. First-class passengers were secured with both shoulder and lap belts while passengers in coach class -- where many of the injuries occurred -- had only lap belts.

Contact Dan Nakaso at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/dannakaso.