Plane crash at SFO

[Herr Faust Schinken]

holy crap have you guys seen this

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/5809207/

http://jalopnik.com/an-airplane-is-on-fire-at-san-franciso-airport-687365560

I always hated flying into this airport always feels like your going to land in the middle of the ocean

[thearkitekt]

The glide slope (vertical guidance portion of the instrument approach) has been NOTAM'd out of service since 6/1, im pretty sure this has something to do with it. Tragic to see a plane crash, but pretty sure this is pilot error.

[Herr Faust Schinken]

thats what its seemed like to me kinda seems like he landed short, part of the plane clipped the stone sea wall, some of the guys on that airline forum are saying the the pilots were reporting some engine problems before the crash so i don't know if that has anything to do with it

[BlackbirdM3]

From the photos I've seen, they got the landing very wrong and were both way too low, and judging from the fact they left the tail in the water off the end of the runway, the angle of attack was WAY too high and they stalled it. I'm calling pilot error 100% unless there were other circumstances that I'm unaware of.

I've always wondered how much pilots rely on computers/autopilot to fly the planes these days. If there was an issue with the glide slope being out of order, you have to do the landing the old fashioned way, and from the looks of things, these guys got it very wrong. They were also very very lucky.

Will

[thearkitekt]

thats what its seemed like to me kinda seems like he landed short, part of the plane clipped the stone sea wall, some of the guys on that airline forum are saying the the pilots were reporting some engine problems before the crash so i don't know if that has anything to do with it

that very well could have hurt the situation.

This was a statement from a passenger on a news site

Rah's father knew something bad was coming, he told his daughter, telling her that the pilot appeared to try to raise the plane at the last minute.

that sounds to me like they had f-ed up the visual then tried to correct when they realized they wouldnt make the field. bad place to do it as that wall sticks up a little bit (not sure who all has flown an airplane in there), and coming in over water is always deceiving with height

[thearkitekt]

I've always wondered how much pilots rely on computers/autopilot to fly the planes these days. If there was an issue with the glide slope being out of order, you have to do the landing the old fashioned way, and from the looks of things, these guys got it very wrong. They were also very very lucky.

Will

I land this way all the time, the autopilot is nice, but all pilots are trained and tested on visual approaches at least every 6 months. That is american pilots, these were not american pilots, and the chinese have a very different flight training standard...

[e30lov]

My roommate was scheduled to fly into SFO at 7pm today. Looks like it's probably not going to happen now

[Herr Faust Schinken]

that very well could have hurt the situation.

This was a statement from a passenger on a news site


that sounds to me like they had f-ed up the visual then tried to correct when they realized they wouldnt make the field. bad place to do it as that wall sticks up a little bit (not sure who all has flown an airplane in there), and coming in over water is always deceiving with height

ive flown "in" an airplane into SFO before and i hate that airport, it always feels like your going to drop into the water

[george graves]

One cool thing about SFO is on a busy day they will bring planes two at a time - wing tip to wing tip. I'd landed like that a few times, and as a passenger it a real treat to see a plane 50' away landing at the same time you are.

[unevolved]

The parallels between this and the BA38 flight are interesting. I know that plane used RR engines, and this one has (had?) PW that supposedly didn't have the same icing problems as the other ones, but a loss of power on short final would certainly complicate things.

[BlackbirdM3]

I land this way all the time, the autopilot is nice, but all pilots are trained and tested on visual approaches at least every 6 months. That is american pilots, these were not american pilots, and the chinese have a very different flight training standard...

And this is why commercial airliners scare the hell out of me. Give me a small privately owned single engine any day of the week. If I'm in the plane, odds are I know the person flying it, and if they look like they are about to get it wrong, at the very least I can question it. I don't have my license, but I've been around airplanes all my life. I've had a lot of hours in the right seat and I was flying on instruments before I could see over the dashboard.

I've only flown into SFO once, it was at night, and I was very small, I don't remember it. Kona Hawaii has the approach right over the water, there you get water and lava rock. It wasn't a bad approach at all. I'd have to guess that SFO is an easy approach.

Will

[ttrousdell]

Im flying from japan with a layover in san fran. tomorrow. I wonder if ill get delayed or see remnants of the accident.

[Herr Faust Schinken]

Im flying from japan with a layover in san fran. tomorrow. I wonder if ill get delayed or see remnants of the accident.

you may be diverted to LAX or SMF, depends on what time your supposed to be flying in to san Francisco, if you are flying in later in the day then SFO should be open later in the day

[Jon325i]

I was watching local news coverage on this event yesterday. As eye witness reports came in, there were 2 people that stated they heard the engines on this triple-7 throttle up right before impact. Now I understand that pilots will increase throttle (sometimes) as they're about to land to level off the plane a bit if the approach angle is steep. I'm leaning towards the theory of pilot error on this one because of where the tail of the plane made the initial impact.

The Boeing 777 has been in service nearly 2 decades and has a excellent safety record. The only other crash involving one was a British Airways jet in 2007 landing at Heathrow.

"The last crash landing involving a Boeing 777 occurred when a British Airways flight from Beijing tried landing at London's Heathrow in 2007. The plane landed short of the runway, barely missing nearby rooftops and a taxi cab, after the engines became clogged with ice crystals in the fuel. After the accident, Boeing identified the problem as being related to the fuel-oil heat exchange in the Rolls-Royce made engines, Rolls-Royce developed a modification that the European Aviation Safety Agency mandated be used in all affected aircraft by January 1, 2011."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/boeing-777-...8#.UdmSS1OE7YE


Jon

[Herr Faust Schinken]

yeah this plane was using Pratt and Whitney which don't have the same deiceing issues as the rolls powerplants, this crash seems like it was 100% pilot error. id say the plane did a pretty good job of keeping people safe for the most part, if this accident happened 40 years ago, there would probably be alot more dead people