The pilot of the Asiana aircraft that crash at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday was reportedly still in training to fly the Boeing 777. Two Chinese students died among the 307 passengers and crew members onboard the flight.
According to the South Korean airline, the junior pilot was named as Lee Kang-kuk, who was the second most junior pilot on the cockpit that day. He had 43 hours of experience flying the huge jet. Lee Kang-kuk has been described as a "very experienced pilot" who had been flying since 1994.
Asiana Airlines spokeswoman Lee Hyo-min said in a press conference that "he wa in training for B777" and that he had not traveled to SFO much with the B777.
The co-pilot has been named as Lee Jung-min, who had lots of experience with the B777, clocking up 3,220 hours on the huge jets. It is not known whether he tried to take over Lee Kang-kuk's to abort the landing.
The plane tragically crash landed when the flight crew attempted to abort a landing just seconds before it approached the sea wall and skidded across the runway, bursting into flames.
The plane was coming in at a speed lower than 137 knots, which was significantly below the target air speed for landing. The crew tried to accelerate the plane before it crash-landed.
An amateur video shows the plane slightly raised upwards seconds before it crash landed. This shows that the pilots tried to abort the landing but was unfortunately too late.
Lee had flown to SFO 20 times on different types of aircraft but it was his first attempt to land a 777 at the airport.
The two students have been identified as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, who both attended the Jiangshan Middle School in Quzhou.
In developing news, one of the deceased victims in the plane crash may have been run over by an emergency vehicle shortly after the crash.
"One of the deceased did have injuries consistent with those of having been run over by a vehicle," said Mindy Talmadge, spokeswoman for the fire department. An autopsy will be performed to find out whether the girl died from the plane crash or the vehicle.
See the video of the plane crash HERE.
