Three of Four SFO Runways Reopen After Fatal Plane Crash

For comprehensive ongoing coverage of the SFO plane crash, go to Millbrae Patch. To see the latest updates as the story continues to unfold, click here. Go here for a live feed of Tweets about the crash, and click here for a roundup of accounts of people who were in the area around the time of the crash.

By Laura Dudnick

National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman said three of the four runways at San Francisco International Airport have been reopened since Saturday's deadly plane crash there, and that the plane was traveling "significantly" slower than the recommended speed just prior to the crash.

In a press conference Sunday afternoon, Hersman explained the agency's investigation of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash, which occurred at about 11:30 a.m. Saturday and killed two girls and seriously injured dozens more 49 people.

NTSB officials have been able to listen to the cockpit voice recorder as well as the flight data recorder, which captured the entire flight from Shanghai, China, to Seoul, South Korea before traveling to SFO.

Hersman said that it could be up to a week before the actual remains of the aircraft could be removed from SFO's airfield.

SFO officials are asking travelers to check with their airline for updated arrival and departure information, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Many flights have been diverted to other airports, according to the SFO website, and a screen displaying arrivals at the international terminal showed only a few on-time flights, with many canceled or delayed hours, the paper reported.

According to Hersman, the airspeed of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 was slow – below the target airspeed. A preliminary review of flight data recorders revealed that the airplane was approaching the runway significantly slower than the recommended speed of 137 knots, or around 160 miles per hour.

"The speed was significantly below 137 knots, and we're not talking about just a few knots," Hersman said. "We're talking about  significantly below."

About four seconds before impact, a cockpit instrument called a "stick shaker" gave crewmembers an audible warning that the airplane was about to stall, Hersman said.

About 1.5 seconds before the plane crashed, cockpit pilots requested a "go-around" from SFO's air traffic control, Hersman said, meaning  the crew asked to circle around the airport and attempt a second landing.

Hersman said investigators will be trying to evaluate "the human side" of the crash – pilot interaction and performance – as well as conditions at the airport and the airplane itself.

"We're going to be looking at the aircraft and certainly looking at the airport and doing documentation as far as the airport and the environment goes," Hersman said.

The plane, a Boeing 777, has a tail No. HL7742 and line No. 553. The plane had a factory rollout of February 2006, and its delivery occurred one month later. It holds 333 seats – 32 of which are business and 271 are economy.

The plane crashed on SFO Runway 2-8 L, slid several hundred feet and burst into flames.

Despite initial revelations from the investigation, Hersman stressed today that all information was preliminary, and that her investigators had been at the crash site for less than 24 hours. She said that the NTSB's investigation would be extensive, and would include interviews with crew and crash victims, analysis of flight plans, flight kits, and cockpit conditions, reviews of crewmember experience, health and other "human factors," analysis of drug and alcohol tests, and a complete documentation of the debris field and analysis of the airplane itself.

Hersman asked members of the public who witnessed the crash to submit their accounts, photographs and video to the NTSB website, www.ntsb.gov.

–Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. – Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.