Washington: In the minutes before Asiana Airlines flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, one of the three pilots in the cockpit called out three times that the plane was descending too fast. But none of the pilots noticed that they were flying the plane too slowly until shortly before it hit the sea wall at the end of runway 28 Left.
Inexperience and Korean culture played a role in the way the pilots handled the landing, according to documents released on Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The captain, Lee Kang Kuk, who was flying the plane, told investigators that any of the three pilots could have decided to break off the approach, but for “the low-level people”, including himself because he was being supervised by an instructor pilot, “it’s very hard,” he said.
Miraculously, only three people died when the Boeing 777 hit a sea wall at San Francisco airport.Miraculously, only three people died when the Boeing 777 hit a sea wall at San Francisco airport. Photo: AP
He also said that as the plane approached he was momentarily blinded by a bright light on the runway, possibly a reflection of the sun, but that he would not wear sunglasses because among Koreans that would be impolite. (Source)
Imagine being imprisoned in a culture or way of thinking that would lead to the death of people. Imagine being so afraid of what people think, that you would not confront someone, or do something as simple as put on a pair of sunglasses. Please don’t take this as a slight on a particular culture. Every culture has its blindness.