New video shows the pilots of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 attempting to abort the landing just 1.5 seconds before it crashed at San Francisco International Airport.
The crash landing of an Asiana Airlines plane at San Francisco International Airport that killed two Chinese school girls is being investigated as a possible pilot error with their black boxes now recovered, federal investigators say.
The South Korean airline has ruled out a mechanical failure behind the Boeing 777's fiery runway landing just before noon Saturday with investigators now seeking to interview the cockpit crew, Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday.
APThe parents of Wang Linjia, center, are comforted at Jiangshan Middle School in Jiangshan city, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, after learning that their daughter was one of two 16-year-old girls killed, Saturday.
The crash landing of an Asiana Airlines plane at San Francisco International Airport that killed two Chinese school girls is being investigated as a possible pilot error with their black boxes now recovered, federal investigators say.
The South Korean airline has ruled out a mechanical failure behind the Boeing 777's fiery runway landing just before noon Saturday with investigators now seeking to interview the cockpit crew, Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday.
Asiana Airlines Flight 214's cockpit voice recorder also showed the jetliner tried to abort its landing and circle for another attempt just 1.5 seconds it crashed, Hersman said.
HANDOUT/REUTERS Chinese students Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia were killed when their Boeing 777 crash landed in San Francisco on Saturday, injuring 182 other passengers.
State broadcaster China Central Television identified the two killed as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16-year-old students of Jiangshan Middle School in eastern China.
Witnesses say their plane struck a seawall at the end of the runway before skidding and catching fire, injuring 182 on board, two of which are now said to be paralyzed from their injuries at San Francisco General Hospital.
Medics told CNN they discovered the girls’ bodies on the runway next to the burning plane that was seen without its tail and parts of its roof upon landing.
John Green/Bay Area News Group via AP Smoke from the wreckage rises from Asiana Flight 214 just after its horrific crash before noon that is now being investigated as a possible pilot error.
Hersman said she doesn't believe it was the plane at fault but potentially the "pilot's recognition of what's going on," she told the Washington Post.
She emphasized the pilot's duty "to be able to assess what’s happening and make the right inputs to make sure they’re in a safe situation. That’s what we expect from pilots. We want to understand what happened in this situation.”
Handout National Transportation Safety Board technician Greg Smith handles the Asiana flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder in NTSB's Washington, DC lab after officials combed through the wreckage, Sunday.
As of Sunday, she said there was no indication that any criminal act was involved, however "everything is still on the table," she said on NBC's Meet the Press.
Investigators plan to analyze both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder for possibly clues behind the crash.
Asiana Airlines CEO Yoon Young-doo, speaking early Sunday in a news briefing, further said, "We think there was no engine defect."
Handout Officials hope the plane's data recorder and cockpit voice recorder will help determine why the plane crashed onto the runway killing two people and injuring 182 others.
The two girls killed were part of a group of 29 students and five teachers that had set off from the girls’ highly competitive school in Zhejiang, an affluent coastal province.
Young-doo said he believes the two girls were sitting in the back half of the plane when it crashed.
A woman from Zhejiang's education department had said earlier that they had lost contact with two students. The woman gave only her surname, Tang.
Ahn Young-Joon/AP Geum Jae-kook, center, a family member of an injured passenger, checks in at the Asiana Airlines ticketing counter prior to boarding his flight to leave for San Francisco to meet his family member.
Of the 291 passengers onboard, 141 were Chinese. At least 70 Chinese students and teachers were on the plane heading to summer camps, according to education authorities in China.
The flight slammed into the runway and caught fire, forcing many to escape by sliding down the emergency inflatable slides as flames tore through the plane.
Lee Jin-Man/AP Asiana Airlines President and CEO Yoon Young-doo, fourth from right, bows among other board members during a press conference Sunday that ruled out a mechanical failure behind the Boeing 777's crash.
President Obama, along with Hersman, has since praised the scene's first responders whose work is being credited for limiting the damage and fatalities.
The White House said in a statement that Obama has directed his team to stay in constant contact with federal, state and local partners as they investigate and respond to the accident.
The White House says the president’s thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected by the crash.
The ages of the 182 injured are said to range from 20 to 76 years old.
JANA ASENBRENNEROVA/Reuters Veddpal Singh, a passenger who suffered a fractured collar bone from while sitting in the middle of the the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777, speaks to the members of the press.
Injuries included internal bleeding, numerous fractures, several spinal fractures and blunt force injuries.
