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Pilots in Crash Were Confused About Control Systems, Experts Say


Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing at a hearing Wednesday about the fatal crash of an Asiana jet in July.

WASHINGTON - The pilots of the Asiana jumbo jet that crashed in San Francisco on July 6 were deeply confused about the plane's automated control systems, and that is a common problem among airline pilots, according to experts who testified Wednesday in a National Transportation Safety Board hearing on the crash.

"We do have an issue in aviation that needs to be dealt with," the chairwoman of the safety board, Deborah A. P. Hersman, told reporters during a break in the hearing. The board will not produce a report on the accident until next year.

The captain and the supervising pilot in the Asiana crash - in which a Boeing 777 hit a sea wall short of the runway, killing three passengers - said they thought a system that is used to control the plane's airspeed was running, although it was not. And all three pilots overlooked a prominent display that showed their airspeed was too low.

According to documents released by the board, for 19 seconds leading up to the crash the pilots had a clear view of guidance lights on the field that indicated they were flying too low, but they did not follow company procedure to break off the approach.