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Asiana Pilot Set Throttles He Didn’t Understand to Idle
SF Gate ^ | December 11, 2013 | Alan Levin and Jeff Plungis

Posted on 12/12/2013 11:51:55 AM PST by Zhang Fei

An Asiana Airlines Inc. captain nervous about making a manual landing in San Francisco inadvertently disabled a speed-control system before the plane crashed into a seawall on July 6, documents show.

Lee Kang Kuk, a veteran pilot with Seoul-based Asiana who was being trained on the Boeing Co. 777-200ER wide-body, had momentarily adjusted the power without realizing the plane’s computers then assumed he wanted the engines to remain at idle, according to information released today at a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board hearing.

The documents, while showing the pilots made errors, raise questions about how auto-throttles on Boeing planes are designed and whether there’s enough training on using them. The safety board hasn’t concluded what caused the crash, which killed three teenage girls from China in the first U.S. airline accident with deaths since 2009.

Lee, 45, “believed the auto-throttle should have come out of the idle position to prevent the airplane going below the minimum speed” for landing, the NTSB said in a summary of an interview with him. “That was the theory at least, as he understood it.”

In most modes of operation, the speed-protection system on the 777 and several other Boeing aircraft won’t allow planes to slow too much, safeguarding against accidents such as the Asiana crash. The plane, on the verge of losing lift because it was almost 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour slower than its target speed, broke apart after hitting the ground.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: asiana; asiana214; sumtingwong; wetoolow; wetulo
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To: Zhang Fei

Yeah right, it’s the plane’s fault. If you can’t fly, buy an Airbus.


21 posted on 12/12/2013 12:15:50 PM PST by mikey_hates_everything
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To: jim_trent

I took a Vietnamese man for a driving test years ago. The tester told me that “they” make terrible drivers, and “we flunk them if we can.” One thing he pointed out was that “they” stare straight ahead, and never turn their heads while driving, because “they” think that if you turn your head, you’re not paying attention to your driving. Sure enough.


22 posted on 12/12/2013 12:16:45 PM PST by Arthur McGowan
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To: Zhang Fei
Lee Kang Kuk, a veteran pilot with Seoul-based Asiana who was being trained on the Boeing Co. 777-200ER wide-body, had momentarily adjusted the power without realizing the plane’s computers then assumed he wanted the engines to remain at idle, according to information released today at a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board hearing.

How much simulator time did he get?

23 posted on 12/12/2013 12:17:08 PM PST by Carry_Okie (0-Care IS Medicaid; they'll pull a sheet over your head and take everything you own to pay for it.)
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To: Carry_Okie

After the crash happened a FReeper who claimed to be a trainer explained to us that he spent time training Korean pilots. He said they have no imagination but would tell each other online what was coming up in the simulator tests and how to deal with it.


24 posted on 12/12/2013 12:19:15 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: MrB

No, he flies for Air Botswana.


25 posted on 12/12/2013 12:20:23 PM PST by clintonh8r (Don't twerk me, Bro!)
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To: Zhang Fei

Nice try on blaming Boeing, MSM science dork.

The bottom line is those pilots were essentially electronic game players and didn’t know what piloting a real airplane (e.g., using manual controls) was like.

They shouldn’t have been in control of a Cessna 150 (which they undoubtedly would have crashed even sooner than the airliner).

And - that automated little paradigm did in that Airbus flying in a t-storm over the Atlantic. Pilots really didn’t understand when the computer was flying or when they were flying. They also didn’t fully understand what “stall” meant.


26 posted on 12/12/2013 12:21:28 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Repeat Offender

‘Flying a plane is just like driving a car - Asians can’t do either without crashing.”

I’ll bet they all had the ability. They just were not trained correctly.

Unlike our Dork-in-Chief, who possesses neither ability or training.


27 posted on 12/12/2013 12:23:47 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Zhang Fei
The safety board hasn’t concluded what caused the crash,

Then what the heck is the deal with the leak?

Non-story, unless readers have their easy chairs in the upright position & flaps set for takeoff on the armchair-quarterbacker-flight-investigation circus of the Asiana crash...

28 posted on 12/12/2013 12:29:38 PM PST by logi_cal869
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To: Zhang Fei

The auto-pilot was turned off and nobody throttled up the engines to maintain angle of decent...
gross human error.


29 posted on 12/12/2013 12:33:36 PM PST by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: logi_cal869

I can tell them what caused the crash - the plane hit the ground.


30 posted on 12/12/2013 12:36:08 PM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Syntyr

Seen the movie “Flight” yet? Capt Whip Whitaker (Denzell Washington) was quickly running out of altitude after an in-flight control failure. He sure didn’t run out of ideas!


31 posted on 12/12/2013 12:38:15 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Da Coyote
That's why Boeing gives the ultimate control of the airplane back to the pilot no matter how much fly by wire there is in the plane and computers.
It's one for these pilots to blame Boeing for this is a totally another to prove it in court if it goes that far with evidence.
In the Asian culture they always have to find a scapegoat for they have to " save face " to protect their image and don't want to be shamed in public.
It's a pride thingy you look at it, this phony humbleness that Asians show is all BS.
You cross them ? they are as nasty as the next guy, and the women are worse.
32 posted on 12/12/2013 12:39:05 PM PST by American Constitutionalist
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To: Vermont Lt
“Computers don’t kill people. They only do what you tell them to do.”

At least until we create man-made brain architecture and the machines become self-aware...

33 posted on 12/12/2013 12:43:52 PM PST by varyouga
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To: Zhang Fei

“believed the auto-throttle should have come out of the idle position to prevent the airplane going below the minimum speed” for landing, the NTSB said in a summary of an interview with him.”

I’m not a pilot but that sounds like a design error to me. Shouldnt there be a system that doesnt allow the plane to fly too slow for landing? If so why would you make it so that it could be accidentally turned off?


34 posted on 12/12/2013 12:47:51 PM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Things are only going to get worse.)
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To: Zhang Fei
I like to see Boeing prove that those pilots are lying, yes lying is acceptable in the Asain cultures in certian situations.
I am sure that the airspeed indicator was showing that the plane's speed was to slow and the alarm going off telling them that the airspeed was to low, it sounds more like they ignored it.
35 posted on 12/12/2013 12:48:01 PM PST by American Constitutionalist
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To: GeronL
USA and FAA to Koran airlines ? you don't fly into our airspace unless you are trained by our standards.
36 posted on 12/12/2013 12:50:04 PM PST by American Constitutionalist
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America

“This pilot can’t fly a plane but Lee sure Kang Kuk!”

KTVU in Oakland initially said that his name was WEE TU LO!
Co-pilot was SUM TING WONG!


37 posted on 12/12/2013 12:50:28 PM PST by vette6387
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To: vette6387

rhymes with Kook maybe?


38 posted on 12/12/2013 12:50:48 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: Arthur McGowan

““they” think that if you turn your head, you’re not paying attention to your driving. Sure enough.”

I had a Chinese draftsman work for me years ago. He had a TA out in the Avenues in SF. He took me out to the scene. While driving out there, I noticed that he looked around until he came to each intersection, then he added power and looked straight ahead. I knew why he had the collision.


39 posted on 12/12/2013 12:53:53 PM PST by vette6387
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To: American Constitutionalist

I hear that KAL is one of the best airlines


40 posted on 12/12/2013 12:55:55 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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