Reuters
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Federal investigators have launched an investigation of the Saturday plane crash at San Francisco International Airport that killed two and injured more than 180 others, officials said.
Chinese reports identified the two dead as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16-year-olds from China’s eastern province of Zhejiang who were traveling to the U.S. with their school.
San Francisco officials comment on plane crash
San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee and fire chief Joanne Hayes-White comment on the crash landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214. Photo: AP
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a “go team” to begin an investigation of the Asiana Airlines Inc.KR:020560 -5.66% ASIC +1.45% Flight 214 crash that killed two Chinese teenage girls.
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman didn’t specify pilot error as the cause of the crash, though preliminary data indicated the pilots allowed the plane’s speed to slow dangerously to the point where there wasn’t enough time to correct their landing approach, according to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday.
In addition to 16 crew members, there were 291 passengers on the Boeing 777 that crashed as it landed at the San Francisco airport and caught fire. A note on the airport’s website Sunday morning indicated that two runways have reopened, but many flights have been diverted to other airports.
The plane’s pilot, Lee Gang-guk, had only 43 hours of experience flying the Boeing 777, and Saturday’s crash marked the first time he had landed such a craft at the San Francisco airport, the Associated Press reported. However, the deputy pilot had considerably more experience with the 777, it said.
A separate Wall Street Journal report said the Boeing 777 has a strong safety record. In a news release, Boeing said it would provide technical assistance to the federal investigation.
Hospital updates on Asiana victims
San Francisco General Hospital staff and passengers provide details following the crash landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco.
This weekend’s incident is reportedlyAsiana’s third fatal crash since it started operating in 1988. Asiana said it has established emergency response centers. Global Traveler magazine named Asiana its 2011 Airline of the Year.
The crash came about 11:30 a.m. Pacific, as the plane landed after a 10-hour, 23-minute flight from Seoul, South Korea.
Television footage showed much of the middle section of the plane burned out and emergency responders surrounding the jet.
Meanwhile, the coroner for San Mateo County, where the airport is located, was looking into the possibility that one of the teenagers killed was run over by an emergency vehicle rushing to the crash site, the Associated Press reported late Sunday.
In a sidenote to the tragedy, Facebook Inc. FB -0.61% Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and several colleagues and family members were due to be on the Asiana flight but changed their bookings at the last moment.
“My family, colleagues Debbie Frost, Charlton Gholson and Kelly Hoffman and I were originally going to take the Asiana flight that just crash-landed. We switched to UnitedUAL +1.83% so we could use [frequent flier] miles for my family’s tickets,” Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page.
Meanwhile, shares of Asiana Airlines fell sharply in Seoul on Monday, down 5.2% just ahead of the close in their first trading since the incident.
Ruth Mantell is a MarketWatch reporter based in Washington. Follow her on Twitter @RuthMantell.Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles. You can follow him on Twitter at @KitchenNews.
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