Airliner Down

Having the airport as a direct neighbor has its good and bad points.  On the plus side, if you are a frequent traveller like I am, being less than 15 minutes from the ticket counter is a convenience that many in the Bay Area envy.  On the downside, the aircraft noise early in the morning and during storms can be very disruptive especially when flight operations go into what is known as "reverse operations" over B'game.  And then there are the nagging fears of crashes.  Not too many locals can recall the 1968 JAL crash at SFO, but today's accident was more serious (at least one reported casualty is being reported).  All flights have been held and incoming was diverted to SJO, Oakland and Sacramento.

The news coverage was immediate and satellite trucks, cameramen and on-air reporters flocked to the bayside--mostly in the Marriott hotel-public lot that was the closest spot to where the fuselage ended up.  Here are some shots from that spot

Comments

[hillsider]

From the sound of it right now reverse operations are in effect already probably because the two long runways are closed.

[Jeff]

Maybe, it was too nice a day and the pilots were distracted by the beauty of the Bay. How else could the plane be so slow and so low?

[UALster]

The news report indicate one of the pilots only had 44 hours on 777s. The other one had much more but strange things can happen when everything seems just fine. One of the tried and true sayings about flying is when things look bad, wind your watch. That means the best course of action sometimes is to wait out the problem. That might not apply when you are that low to the ground but it might also have lessened the damage of the nose coming up on last minute power. We'll see.

[Jeff]

Whenever I do something for the first time I am extra careful to do it right & "by the book". These two pilots were very experienced flyers but yet there were many firsts for them. First time the pilot landed a 777 at SFO. First time the instructor pilot was acting in that capacity. First time the two had ever flown together. Lots of firsts, maybe too many, but what happened to being "extra careful & doing it by the book"?

[Joe]

In a front page article in today's WSJ it was noted that:

Foreign airline crews experienced problems approaching SFO at a greater rate than US pilots when the airport's landing guidance system was impaired, a WSJ analysis of government data found.

The findings, based on nearly 100,000 flights coming into the busy hub over six months, come as federal investigators held their first public hearing Wed. on the crash last summer of an Asiana Airlines jet.

....the NTSB revealed that the commander of the Asiana jet failed to respond to as many as four verbal warnings that his co-pilot was descending too quickly

During the five-week stretch leading up to the July 6 crash, a pivotal component of the system was out of service on the two busiest runways because of construction and

....foreign carriers broke off landing approaches to go around and try again at a rate nearly three times as high as their American counterparts.

[Joe]

Here's some more disappointing findings on the crash from an article in yesterday's Daily Post:

The co-pilot was sitting back in a jump seat while an experienced pilot who was just learning the 777 flew. The co-pilot thought about saying something about descending too quickly, but the other two pilots were senior to him so he never said anything.

And the one flying thought about doing a go-around but in his mind that had to be suggested by the captain or the instructor pilot...

And lastly, the one flying was blinded by a momentary beam of light--he wasn't wearing aviator sunglasses because "he said that would be disrespectful in the presence of a superior like his instructor in the next seat." Wow!

[Joe]

There is a new video out on YouTube that shows the crash and aftermath:

The 47-minute video clip was shot from the airport control tower and shows Asiana Airlines flight 214 coming in for a landing over San Francisco Bay before clipping a seawall at the beginning of the runway.

It shows smoke and dust rising from the craft as it spins down the runway then zooms in as passengers slide down emergency chutes while the plane begins to burn.

The National Transportation Safety Board released part of the footage five months after the July 6, 2013, crash.

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/video-shows-more-of-fatal-san-francisco-airliner-crash/article_6486ff74-61f6-11e7-a923-db409290c327.html

I'll save you the search on YouTube, it's here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoTk5670rmQ

[Joe]

A close call at SFO today-- "where's this guy going?":

SAN FRANCISCO — The pilot of an Air Canada plane carrying 140 passengers made a last-minute maneuver to avoid landing on a San Francisco International Airport taxiway where four passenger jets were lined up to take off.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it is investigating why the pilot mistakenly lined up to land on the taxiway instead of the runway just to the left. An air traffic controller ordered the Airbus 320 to abort and circle for another landing, which it did without incident.

Aviation-safety consultant Todd Curtis called the incident “definitely a serious event since a landing on an active taxiway could lead to a catastrophic accident.”

In audio posted on liveatc.net, which records flight communications, the pilot on the plane from Toronto and the air traffic controller sounded calm as the incident unfolded.

At first, the pilot said he sees “some lights on the runway,” apparently alluding to planes on the taxiway, the aviation equivalent of feeder roads that planes use to roll between runways and terminals.

The controller assures the pilot there is no one on the runway. Seconds later, another voice — apparently one of the pilots on the taxiway — interjects “Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway.”

The controller orders the Air Canada jet to “go around,” and the pilot acknowledges the command.

Roughly 30 seconds later, a United Airlines pilot on the taxiway says the jet “flew directly over us.”

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/airliner-nearly-lands-on-other-planes-at-sfo/article_75b23a88-66ac-11e7-b0e8-57d9a891b8ee.html

[Going To Pot.]

Pot.

It was Pot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Km2JUKI0I