Asiana crash evacuation delayed by 90 seconds

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- As soon as Asiana Flight 214 came to a stop after a crash landing that tore off the tail and sent the Boeing 777 spinning down the runway at San Francisco International Airport, the lead flight attendant asked pilots if she should begin evacuating passengers. The answer: No.

With dust swirling in the cabin, the hundreds on board stayed in their seats. It wasn't until 90 seconds later, when a flight attendant noticed fire on the outside of the plane, that emergency slides were deployed and passengers began streaming out of the plane.

Two of the plane's eight slides malfunctioned, however, opening inside the cabin and pinning two flight attendants underneath. Meantime, the fire that started when fuel leaked onto a hot engine started spreading and flight attendants and the flight crew battled the flames as firefighters and rescuers arrived.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman recounted the sequence of events at a news conference Wednesday. She said it was pieced together based on interviews with six of the 12 flight attendants.

"We don't know what the pilots were thinking, but I can tell you, in previous accidents there have been crews that don't evacuate," she said. "They wait for other vehicles to come to get the passengers out safely. Certainly if there's an awareness that there's a fire aboard the aircraft, that is a very serious issue. There was a fire, and then the evacuation began."

She said part of the crash investigation will involve deciphering if proper procedures were followed during the evacuation.

"Hindsight is 20/20," Hersman said. "We all have a perspective that's different than the people involved in this."

The plane, carrying 307 passengers and crew, crashed Saturday. When the tail was peeled off after the plane clipped the seawall at the end of the runway, three of four flight attendants seated in the rear were ejected from the plane, Hersman said. All survived and were among the six flight attendants who remain hospitalized.

Two people died in the crash and scores were injured, though most not seriously.

The flight attendants, especially lead attendant Lee Yoon Hye, have been cited for their professionalism during the evacuation. Lee and the other five attendants not hospitalized, one of whom was in a wheelchair, held a brief, emotional news conference Wednesday.

"I hope that all the families who suffered losses from this accident to recover as quickly as possible," Lee said. "They are all in my prayers."

With some of her colleagues choking back tears, Lee said they are all trying to recover.

She then quickly left the podium.

Investigators look into pairing of Asiana pilots

As Flight 214 descended over San Francisco Bay, both Asiana Airlines pilots were trying something new. In the left seat of the cockpit sat Lee Gang-kuk, a 46-year-old pilot with 35 hours of experience flying a Boeing 777 who was landing the big jet for his first time at San Francisco International Airport. At his right was Lee Jeong-Min, a trainer making his first trip as an instructor pilot.

While the two men had years of aviation experience, this mission involved unfamiliar duties, and it was the first time they had flown together.

Investigators trying to piece together what went wrong are looking at the pairing of the pilots, who were assigned to work together through a tightly regulated system developed after several deadly crashes in the 1980s were blamed in part on inexperience in the cockpit. They will also be examining their working relationship, said Hersman on Wednesday.

The NTSB has now concluded interviews with all four pilots who were aboard the plane.

Hersman said Wednesday the pilot trainee told investigators he was blinded by a light at about 500 feet, which would have been 34 seconds before impact and the point at which the airliner began to slow and drop precipitously. She said lasers have not been ruled out. It was unclear, however, whether the flash might have played a role in the crash.

Hersman stressed that while the trainee pilot was flying the plane, the instructor was ultimately responsible, and thus the way they worked together will be scrutinized.

Inspectors found that the autothrottle had been "armed," or made ready for activation, Hersman said. But investigators are still determining whether it had been engaged. In the last two minutes, there was a lot of use of autopilot and autothrusters, and investigators are going to look into whether pilots made the appropriate commands and if they knew what they were doing, she said.

When the pilots realized the plane was approaching the waterfront runway too low and too slow, they both reached for the throttle. Passengers heard a loud roar as the plane revved up in a last-minute attempt to abort the landing.

Some calm, others agitated in 911 calls

Among the 911 calls made in the moments following the crash of Flight 214 were calls made by passengers -- some calm, others agitated. Passengers reported people laying on the tarmac and asked for emergency responders.

"Hi. We are at the San Francisco International Airport and we just got in a plane crash and there are a lot of people that need help," said Elena Jin. She was one of the first Asiana plane crash survivors to call 911. "There are a bunch of people who still need help and there's not enough medics out here that need help. There's a woman out here on the street on the runway who is pretty much burned very severely on the head and we don't know what to do."

Another caller echoed her concern.

"Yes, I was on the plane. We've been on the ground, I don't know 20 minutes? A half hour? There are people laying on the tarmac with critical injuries, head injuries, we're almost losing a woman here. We're trying to keep her alive," said another woman.

Wendell Hom had been in seat 15D and was trying to help others.

"We were just looking at the rescue workers, 'Hey, we need help!' I'm not sure what they were up to, but it felt to us they lagged a bit. But then I guess we don't know what they... maybe they had other things to consider," said Hom.

Mindy Talmadge says that's exactly the case. She's the spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department. In a large scale emergency, she says they have to respond differently. Ambulances can't just pull right up to the plane.

"One of the reasons they did stage the ambulances a distance away from the aircraft was in case there was an explosive event, we would not be left without ambulances," said Talmadge.

So victims may not have seen a lot of the medical personnel, but they were there triaging patients and taking them to nearby hospitals.

"San Francisco had units on the scene within 13 minutes and when they arrived, San Mateo had already had some units on scene," said Talmadge.

AMR of San Mateo says it had an ambulance at the airport when the plane crashed. They report two units on scene within the first five minutes, eight units within 20 minutes. Their force totaled 38 and they used units from other counties to make sure regular calls were handled as well.

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