Asiana Pilot Bright Light Story Investigated in Boeing 777 Crash

The pilot of an Asiana plane that crash landed in San Francisco last week said he saw a bright light 500 feet above the runway, raising questions about whether a laser might have been a factor in the crash, a New York Post story said.

The crash killed two people and injured others after it came in too slow and too low for the landing, the Post said. Pilot Lee Kang Kuk, who was learning to fly the Boeing 777, and Lee Jeong-Min who was training him were two of four pilots on board the flight.

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The National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said lasers are not ruled out, the newspaper reported, but urged people not to speculate about the cause of the crash until the investigation is complete.

Hersman said the relationship between Kuk and Jeong-Min will be explored, making sure that communication was open between the two, CBS News reported.

The investigation indicated that a third pilot told the two pilots their speed was too slow, Hersman told CBS. The pilots have said they believed the plane’s speed was controlled by an autothrottle.

“In the last two minutes, there was a lot of use of autopilot and autothrusters, and investigators are going to look into whether pilots made the appropriate commands and if they knew what they were doing,” Hersman said, according to CBS.

As investigators try to determine what caused the plane crash, others are up in arms about how slowly ambulances were available to help the injured, the news organization said, and also that passengers were ordered to sit in their seats for 90 seconds after the crash.

An NPR story reported that Hersman wasn’t concerned about the pilots waiting to evacuate the passengers because the pilots were talking with the air traffic controllers to maintain safe procedures. Once a flight attendant saw a fire outside the plane, the evacuation began immediately, Hersman said.

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