Asiana

Asiana Flight 214 pilots hospitalized, AP reports


The Asiana Airlines pilots involved in the crash landing of Flight 214 earlier this month have been hospitalized in South Korea "for psychological trauma and injuries caused by the incident," The Associated Press reports. The news agency cited officials who "spoke on condition of anonymity."

Those officials, from South Korea's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, said Wednesday that the pilots' hospitalization follows medical checkups they received on returning to South Korea this past the weekend.

The pilots were questioned by a U.S. and South Korean joint investigation team while in the USA. A separate session with South Korean officials also looms for the pilots. The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry officials say that interview could come as soon as Friday, depending on doctors' recommendations.

The Associated Press adds South Korean officials gave no further details and spoke on condition of anonymity citing department rules.

Asiana Flight 214 crash landed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, resulting in three deaths and dozens of injuries.

Against the news of the pilot's apparent hospitalization, The Wall Street Journal reports that they "fear they will face criminal prosecution in (Asiana's) home country of South Korea, said people familiar with their thinking ... ." The Journal adds that "prospect ... alarms U.S. pilot-union leaders and air-safety experts."

South Korea asked Asiana to review safety before crash

(AP)South Korea's transport ministry said Thursday it asked Asiana Airlines Inc. to review safety measures two months before an Asiana flight crash-landed in San Francisco.

Kwon Yong Bok, director general of aviation safety policy at the transport ministry, said the government informed Asiana on April 30 it should hire more pilots, engineers and cabin crew as the airline planned to increase its fleet of airplanes by 20 percent by 2017. It currently has 80 planes.

"We asked the company to review its safety policies once again," Kwon said by phone.
He said the ministry also recommended that Asiana centralize its safety management system and set up an oversight team for aircraft maintenance.

The recommendations were made as part of a safety consulting program that the ministry set up for the airline industry to minimize the risk of accidents.

Asiana Flight 214 crash-landed at San Francisco's international airport on July 6, killing three people and injuring dozens. Twelve people are still hospitalized including five cabin crew, South Korea's transport ministry said Monday.

The crash of the Boeing 777 was Asiana's first accident since a cargo plane landed in waters near South Korea's Jeju island in 2011, killing two pilots. Its deadliest plane accident was in 1993 when a domestic flight crashed south of Seoul, killing 66 people.

The cause of the San Francisco accident is still being probed but investigators have so far found no evidence of mechanical problems with the plane.

Asiana to pay $15K to store burned jet


In this July 6, 2013, file photo, firefighters, lower center, stand by a tarpaulin sheet covering the body of a Chinese teen struck by a fire truck during the emergency response to the crash of Asiana Flight 214 at the San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco.

Renting in San Francisco is a costly affair, even if you're just leasing space to store your charred airplane.

Asiana Airlines is being charged $15,000 by San Francisco International Airport to keep the wreckage from the fatal July 6 crash at the hub for two weeks, said SFO spokesman Doug Yakel. Asiana has been given until July 26 to remove the wreckage.

Yakel said SFO does not plan to extend that deadline.


The husk of the Boeing 777 was moved early Friday to a remote stretch of airport land that cannot be seen by passengers in the terminals.

SFO and other entities also have initiated the process of recovering from the South Korea-based airline costs incurred following the crash, which killed three people and injured dozens more.

Those costs include cleanup of spilled jet fuel and other materials emanating from the downed jetliner, along with man-hours for airport personnel and police and fire crews working overtime.

United Airlines contracted with an airline salvage company to move the remains. Yakel said United runs a large maintenance operation at SFO and "had a ready, established contract at the airport for recovery." It's also an Asiana marketing partner.