Flight attendants survived being ejected in crash
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Two flight attendants working in the back of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 were ejected and survived when the plane slammed into a seawall and lost its tail end during a crash landing at San Francisco’s airport. Both women were found on the runway, amid debris. In a news conference Tuesday, National Transportation Safety Board officials didn’t explain fully why the plane approached the notoriously difficult landing strip too low and slow, likely causing the crash. NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said the pilot at the controls was only about halfway through his training on the Boeing 777 and was landing at the San Francisco airport for the first time ever. Hersman also said his co-pilot was also on his first trip as a flight instructor. The NTSB hasn’t ruled anyone at fault in the crash, but the new details painted a fuller picture of an inexperienced crew that didn’t react fast enough to warnings the plane was in trouble. Audio recordings show pilots tried to correct the plane’s speed and elevation only until seconds before hitting the seawall at the end of the runway, a calamitous impact that sent the fuselage bouncing and skidding across the airfield. Here is what is known: Seven seconds before impact, someone in the cockpit asked for more speed after apparently noticing that the jet was flying far slower than its recommended landing speed. A few seconds later, the yoke began to vibrate violently, an automatic warning telling the pilot the plane is losing lift and in imminent danger of an aerodynamic stall. One and a half seconds before impact came a command to abort the landing.