All four pilots were being interviewed on Monday by investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies, NTSB chairwoman Deborah Hersman said at a news conference in San
Francisco. Saturday's crash killed two teenage Chinese passengers and injured more than 180 other people.
The pilot at the controls, Lee Kang-kuk, was still training on Boeing 777 jets, the South Korean airline said, and his supervisor was making his first flight as a trainer. Lee had 43 hours of experience flying the long-range jet, Asiana said.
It was not clear whether the senior pilot, Lee Jung-min, who had clocked 3,220 hours on a Boeing 777, had tried to take over to abort the landing.
"It's a training that is common in the global aviation industry. All responsibilities lie with the instructor captain," Yoon Young-doo, the president and CEO of the airline, said at a news conference on Monday at the company headquarters.
The NTSB had said on Sunday the plane was "significantly below" its intended airspeed and its crew tried to abort the landing less than two seconds before it hit a seawall in front of the runway.
I heard a radio interview today, a pilot, indicated that POSSIBLY .... there are bragging rights among pilots for using as little of the runway as possible, to set it down as quickly as possible. I understand these pilots were new, and just perhaps, wanted to impress other pilots, and have "braggin rights" at the local pub later on. I imagine that the four pilots are "done" as pilots.
