Plane crash pilot was in training

New footage shows the Asiana Airlines plane crash. Credit: CNN

THE pilot of the Boeing 777 which crashed at San Francisco airport, killing two passengers, was on his first flight in the jet.

A spokeswoman for Asiana says it was the pilot's first flight to the airport with the jet.

"It was Lee Kang-kook's maiden flight to the airport with the jet. He was in training. Even a veteran gets training (for a new jet)," she said.

"He has a lot of experience and has previously flown to San Francisco on different planes including the B747... and he was assisted by another pilot who has more experience with the 777."

In other key developments:

US investigators said the Boeing 777 was travelling much slower than recommended and a pilot asked to abort the landing moments before the plane smashed into the ground.

The plane flips upwards as the landing goes horribly wrong. Picture: Fred Hayes via CNN

The flight data recorder also showed that as the Boeing 777 approached the runway its pilots were warned that the aircraft was likely to stall.

The request to abort the landing was captured on the cockpit voice recorder 1.5 seconds before the plane crashed, said National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman, who is leading the probe.

Her announcement came after a video obtained by CNN confirmed that the aircraft, carrying more than 300 people, clipped a seawall short of the airport and skidded on its belly on to the runway.

The footage showed the nose up with the rear of the plane hitting the ground first, before it rolled on to the concrete, abruptly bounced upward and then spun round 180 degrees.

The crash was also caught on video.

The parents of Flight 214 victim, Wang Linjia, are comforted by parents of some other students who were on the Asiana Airlines jet that crashed at San Francisco International Airport. Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, students at Jiangshan Middle School in China's eastern Zhejiang province, were both killed.

Fred Hayes was  watching planes land at San Francisco airport and filmed the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash landing.

He told CNN he shot the footage about 2km from the crash.

Two teenage girls who died when thrown clear of the plane as it landed have been identifed as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16, from China's eastern Zhejiang province.

The girls, aged 16 and part of a school group from China,  were found on either side of the plane near the "front middle", said San Francisco fire chief  Joanne Hayes-White.

A coroner is investigating whether one of the girls was killed by a rescue vehicle as she lay on the runway.

An animation shows how an Asiana Airlines flight crashed at SFO San Fransisco. Credit: ABC Seven

The girls were part of a group of 29 students and five teachers on a class trip from Jiangshan Middle School.

New animated video released by the American ABC network shows how it is thought the accident happened, with the Boeing 777 coming in too low so that the landing gear clipped the runway. The plane then skids off the runway before being consumed in flames.

Chief Hayes-White added that 19 people remain in hospital, six of them in critical condition.

As investigators try to determine what caused the crash the accident left many wondering how nearly 305 of the 307 passengers and crew members were able to make it out alive.

Smokes rises from Asiana Flight 214 after it crashed at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, John Green)

Police officers threw utility knives up to crew members inside the burning wreckage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 so they could cut away passengers' seat belts. Passengers jumped down emergency slides, escaping from thick billowing smoke.

And amid the chaos, some urged fellow passengers to keep calm, even as flames tore through the Boeing 777's fuselage.

"It's miraculous we survived," said passenger Vedpal Singh, who had a fractured collarbone and whose arm was in a sling.

Investigators took the flight data recorder to Washington, D.C., overnight to begin examining its contents for clues to the last moments of the plane before the crash, officials said. They also plan to interview the pilots, the crew and passengers.

"I think we're very thankful that the numbers were not worse when it came to fatalities and injuries," said National Transportation Safety Board chief Deborah Hersman on US network NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. "It could have been much worse."

This aerial photo shows the wreckage of the Asiana Flight 214. Picture: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

While authorities have said very little about the investigation at this early stage, clues have emerged in witness accounts of the planes approach and video of the wreckage, leading one aviation expert to say the aircraft may have approached the runway too low.

Mike Barr, a former military pilot and accident investigator who teaches aviation safety at the University of Southern California, said it appeared that something on the plane in its low approach may have caught the runway lip - the seawall at the end of the runway.

San Francisco is one of several airports around the country that border bodies of water that have walls at the end of their runways to prevent planes that overrun a runway from ending up in the water.

Since the plane was about to land, its landing gear would have already been down, Mr Barr said. It's possible the landing gear or the tail of the plane hit the seawall, he said. If that happened, it would effectively slam the plane into the runway, he said.

Noting that some witnesses reported hearing the plane's engines rev up just before the crash, Mr Barr said that would be consistent with a pilot who realized at the last minute that the plane was too low and was increasing power to the engines to try to increase altitude.

An eyewitness photo captures the evacuation of passengers from the Asiana flight. Picture: David Eun/Twitter

Mr Barr said he could think of no reason why a plane would come in to land that low.

"When you heard that explosion, that loud boom and you saw the black smoke ... you just thought, my god, everybody in there is gone," said Ki Siadatan, who lives near the airport and watched the plane's "wobbly" and "a little bit out of control" approach from his balcony.

"My initial reaction was I don't see how anyone could have made it," he said.

Inside the plane, Mr Singh, who was sitting in the middle of the aircraft with his family, said there was no forewarning from the pilot or any crew members before the plane touched down hard and he heard a loud sound.

"We knew something was horrible wrong," said a visibly shaken Singh. He said the plane went silent before people tried to get out anyway they could. His 15-year-old son said luggage tumbled from the overhead bins.

The Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 seen on the runway at San Francisco International Airport after crash landing.  Picutre: AFP

Passenger Benjamin Levy said it looked to him that the plane was flying too low and too close to the bay as it approached the runway. Mr Levy, who was sitting in an emergency exit row, said he felt the pilot try to lift the jet up before it crashed.

He said he thought the maneuver might have saved some lives. "Everybody was screaming. I was trying to usher them out," he recalled of the first seconds after the landing. "I said: 'Stay calm, stop screaming, help each other out, don't push.'"

By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. The tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the beginning of the runway. One engine appeared to have broken away.

The flight originated in Shanghai, China, and stopped over in Seoul, South Korea, before making the nearly 11-hour trip to San Francisco, airport officials said. The airline said there were 16 crew members aboard and 291 passengers. Thirty of the passengers were children.

San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne Hayes-White said the two who died were found on "the exterior" of the plane. "Having surveyed that area, we're lucky that there hasn't been a greater loss," she said.

This image courtesy of CBS affiliate KPIX, shows firefighters fighting a fire on an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777.  Picture: AFP

Airport spokesman Doug Yakel said 49 people were critically injured and 132 had less significant injuries.

South Korean government said the passengers included 141 Chinese, 77 South Koreans, 61 Americans, three Canadians, three from India, one Japanese, one Vietnamese and one from France, while the nationalities of the remaining three haven't been confirmed.

At least 70 Chinese students and teachers were on the plane heading to summer camps, according to education authorities in China.  

Asiana President Yoon Young-doo said at a televised news conference that it will take time to determine the cause of the crash. But when asked about the possibility of engine or mechanical problems, he said he doesn't believe they could have been the cause.

He said the plane was bought in 2006 but didn't provide further details. Asiana officials later said the plane was also built that year.

Asiana Airlines Flight 214 Boeing 777 lies burned on the runway after it crash landed at San Francisco International Airport, killing two girls and leaving 182 injured. Ezra Shaw

Mr Yoon also bowed and offered an apology, "I am bowing my head and extending my deep apology" to the passengers, their families and the South Korean people over the crash, he said.

Four pilots were aboard the plane and they rotated on a two-person shift during the flight, according to The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in South Korea. The two who piloted the plane at the time of crash were Lee Jeong-min and Lee Gang-guk.

Mr Yoon, the Asiana president, described the pilots as "skilled," saying three had logged more than 10,000 hours each of flight time. He said the fourth had put in almost that much time, but officials later corrected that to say the fourth had logged nearly 5,000 hours. All four are South Koreans.

Asiana is a South Korean airline, second in size to national carrier Korean Air. It has recently tried to expand its presence in the United States, and joined the Star Alliance, which is anchored in the U.S. by United Airlines.

The 777-200 is a long-range plane from Boeing. The twin-engine aircraft is often used for flights from one continent to another because it can travel 12 hours or more without refueling.

This photo provided by Zach Custer shows smoke rising from the plane. Picture: AP Photo/Zach Custer

The most notable accident involving a 777 occurred on January 17, 2008 at Heathrow Airport in London. British Airways Flight 28 landed hard about 1,000 feet short of the runway and slid onto the start of the runway. The impact broke the 777-200's landing gear. There were 47 injuries, but no fatalities.

The president of Asiana Airline said the plane that crash landed in San Francisco did not have engine problems and apologises to passengers. Julie Noce reports.

A tail section can be seen where investigators continue to inspect the scene of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport on July 7, 2013. AFP /Josh Edelson

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