Asiana Flight 214 Crash at SFO

Asiana Airlines Flight 214 was an international flight between Seoul and San Francisco.  That means the airline’s obligation to compensate its passengers for their injuries is governed by an international treaty known as the Montreal Convention. Here are some of the Convention’s important points, as they apply to Flight 214:

  • The Airline must compensate

A pilot needs to reach the end of the runway at the right height and speed. Too slow and the aircraft could stall and crash. Too fast and the aircraft will run off the far end.

As an approach to landing progresses, the pilot watches the runway and constantly reassesses whether the aircraft is going

A poster on another forum notes that air traffic control kept Asiana 214 higher than the same flight from Seoul that landed the day before, requiring the aircraft to make a steeper descent to the runway.  This is sometimes called a "slam dunk" approach.

The top illustration is the descent profile for the accident flight.