BREAKING: Asiana Airlines 777 crash lands at San Francisco International Airport

[Last updated on 04:30 UTC]
by Vinay Bhaskara and Devesh Agarwal

Asiana 777-200ER Image Credit: Wikimedia
Earlier today, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 with service from Seoul Incheon Airport to San Francisco crash landed on arrival at San Francisco.

The flight was carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew members. Latest reports put the death toll at two.

Initial reports are that the aircraft had just touched down around 11:20 am local time, when the empennage was sheared off rear of the aft pressure bulkhead of the 777, and the tail, gear, and engine of the plane separated. The plane turned around nearly 180 degrees and came to a stop to the right of the runway facing eastwards. Photos show debris before runway 28L; implying that the aircraft hit the ground before making it over the runway. Passengers were evacuated before the aircraft caught fire. The National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] has been dispatched to the scene to investigate.

Image of the crash from news outlet KTVU
The aircraft is a Boeing 777-200ER with registration HL7742. The aircraft, with line number MSN-29171 is powered by 2 Pratt&Whitney 4090 engines and is configured with either 296 or 300 seats on board and was delivered on March 7th, 2006. Asiana Airlines operates 9 Boeing 777-200ER aircraft in 6 different configurations.

291 passengers (19 business, 272 economy) and 16 crew members were on board, reports are that all  of the 307 passengers are accounted for. According to the San Francisco fire department, 2 people have been reported dead, with 230 injuries of some sort. However, in situations such as this crash, the numbers in terms of passengers According to Asiana Airlines, the passengers on board “were comprised of 77 Korean citizens, 141 Chinese citizens, 61 US citizens, 1 Japanese citizen.”

Asiana's official press release related to the incident can be found here. San Francisco International Airport has been updating the media constantly with intermittent press conferences as it can release information.

The incident is the first fatal incident involving passengers and a Boeing 777. The last (and only other) major crash of a Boeing 777 aircraft occurred on January 17, 2008, when British Airways Flight 38 crashed on arrival at London Heathrow after flying in from Beijing. However, on September 5th, 2001, a ground fire broke out on a British Airways 777-236 at Denver, and one re-fueling operative was killed.

Asiana flight 214 is the first airline crash on US soil since Colgan Airlines flight 3407 on February 12, 2009, which killed 49 passengers on a Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft. The last mainline crash in the United States occurred on November 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 crashed at New York's JFK International Airport, killing 265 (260 passengers, 5 on the ground)

The following picture from passenger David Eun shows passengers disembarking the aircraft, and the fuselage appears to be intact, though burning.

The following videos were taken by a passenger at San Francisco Airport




Videos credit to @360kid

The ATC feed can be heard here on the LiveATC site archive. Asiana 214 is given a landing clearance to runway 28L around 21m20s into the recording. The crash occurs around 22m02s. Shouting can be heard in the background of the tower controller's transmission at the time of the crash.

Image via Ben Sandilands showing emergency response
The airline put out a statement around 2130 UTC
The following information has been confirmed.

Asiana Airlines flight OZ214 (Aircraft Registration HL7742) departed Incheon International Airport on July 6, 2013 at 16:35 (Korea time) bound for San Francisco. Only July 6, 2013 at 11:28 (Local time) an accident occurred as OZ214 was making a landing on San Francisco International Airport's runway 28.

There were a total of 291 passengers (19 business class, 272 travel class) and 16 cabin crew aboard. The majority of the passengers were comprised of 77 Korean citizens, 141 Chinese citizens, 61 US citizens, 1 Japanese citizen, etc. for a total of 291 people.

Asiana Airlines is currently investigating the specific cause of the incident as well as any injuries that may have been sustained to passengers as a result. Asiana Airlines will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation of all associated government agencies and to facilitate this cooperation has established an emergency response center at its headquarters.

At this point no additional information has been confirmed. New developments will be announced as more information becomes available.

*For further information regarding OZ213/214, please contact 02-2669-4015 (for overseas calls : 82-2-2669-4015).
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Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crashes at San Francisco airport

by Devesh Agarwal

Asiana Boeing 777-200ER. Image courtesy Wikimedia
An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER bearing registration HL7742 has crash landed at San Francisco International airport (SFO).

Flight OZ 214 from Incheon airport Seoul, South Korea to San Francisco, California, USA, appears to have touched down short of runway 28L. Major portions of the aircraft broke apart, fuselage, tail, landing gear, and engines at the landing. The aircraft fuselage burst into flames and is burned out.

Emergency services responded and there appears to be no fatalities at present. Flight operations at the airport are disrupted due to the shutdown of runway 28L.

A video from a ground observer took this video.

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Vested interests shaping government policy helped AirAsia partner Tatas too

by Devesh Agarwal
Image courtesy Wikipedia
Aviation insiders have known for many years what AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes dared publicly state the day before yesterday, after his meeting with civil aviation minister Ajit Singh. Vested interests have shaped, nay, distorted Indian civil aviation policy.

One of the more shameful rules of Indian civil aviation is the policy of allowing Indian carriers to operate international flights only after they have been in operation for five years, and have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft.

The worst aspect of this rule is that it applies only to Indian carriers. So while even newly formed airlines from our neighbours like Mihin Lanka, flyDubai, etc., could fly to India, a perfectly capable IndiGo or SpiceJet were forced to watch their competitors establish themselves, while they themselves had to sit idly by. Even today GoAir is unable to operate international flights since its fleet is smaller than the mandated 20 aircraft, forcing the airline to lobby and seek an exemption from the rule.

Image © Devesh Agarwal. All rights reserved.
The blind ambition to operate international flights before it completed the five year requirement, was one of the driving reasons for Vijay Mallya promoted Kingfisher Airline's disastrous acquisition of the loss-laden Air Deccan, which is now acknowledged as a major reason for the ultimate demise of the liquor baron's airline.

We completely agree with Fernandes that this bizarre rule has held back Indian airlines while other airlines in the region have formed and grown to become large stable businesses, thus causing a loss to the nation.

Fernandes appeared to confirm insider information when he used the name "Naresh", most likely referring to Naresh Goyal, the politically super-connected boss of Jet Airways, who was the "vested interest" behind this bizarre policy decision.

Fernandes though, should remember history and use caution when blaming "vested interests" for distorting government policy. Back in 2006, his partners in AirAsia India, the Tatas, actively lobbied the finance departing to apply a different yard-stick from the then national auto policy, and made their fledgling Indica car qualify as a "small car" and obtain lower excise duty benefits which it was otherwise not be entitled to, while its competitors would.

A 2006 report explains
While the Auto Policy defines a small car as being up to 3.8-metre long and the 6-digit excise notification in the official tariff book places a cap of 1,000 cc on the engine capacity for a car to qualify as 'small', the Budget made cars up to 4 metre in length and having an engine capacity of 1,200 cc (petrol) and 1500 cc (diesel) eligible for the lower, 16% excise slab.

This means, had the finance minister stuck to the existing definition, petrol models such as Hyundai Santro and Maruti WagonR would not have become eligible for lower excise. Under this definition, the upcoming diesel variants of Swift and Getz will also become eligible for lower excise since the engine capacity cap for diesel versions has been placed at 1,500 cc. But, just a few weeks after the budget was passed, two major automobile companies have begun lobbying for extending these concessions further.

Officials confirmed that two companies, including the Ratan Tata-led Tata Motors, have sought further relaxation.
Fernandes' outburst is understandably,  also vested. After all, he is responsible to the shareholders of his business for delivering results. One way for his new venture AirAsia India to quickly grow, would be to operate internationally.

Today AirAsia cannot carry passengers all the way from south east Asia to the middle-east on its narrow body A320s, since the distance it too great. At the same time. some of the routes would not have enough traffic to fill the wide-body A330s of AirAsia X. But if AirAsia India flies overseas, it can be fed by its sisters AirAsia, and Thai AirAsia who would bring passengers to the Indian hubs and transfer them on their Indian sister along with Indian passengers for the onward journey to the middle-east.

Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? Or is Tony Fernandes genuinely interested in universal change to fair play rules? Share your thoughts via a comment.
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Boeing 2nd quarter deliveries point to slow recovery from 787 fiasco

by Vinay Bhaskara

Chicago based airframer Boeing S.A. reported a 13% rise year over year in aircraft deliveries for the second quarter of 2013, after the resumption of 787 Dreamliner deliveries in May following its grounding earlier this year pushed the total to 169 aircraft, up from 150 a year prior and 137 in the first quarter of 2013.

Boeing delivered 116 737 Next-Generation narrow-bodies versus 109 a year earlier, 16 Dreamliners (against 6 in Q1 2012), 6 747-8 quad-jets, 8 767-300s (passenger and cargo), and 23 777s.

The rise in deliveries marked a positive step in Boeing's recovery from the grounding of its newest product line, the Boeing 787, in mid-January. Since that costly grounding, Boeing reported yet another quarterly profit, launched the largest iteration of the 787; the 787-10, with 102 orders at the Paris Air Show, and made progress towards the launch of the Boeing 777X program. The strong quarterly deliveries simply marks another step in Boeing's road to recovery.

Image courtesy Boeing

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Air India to commence Australia service with 787 Dreamliner in late August

by Devesh Agarwal

After many a false start, it appears national carrier Air India is scheduled to commence its Australia service at the end of August. The airline will use its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners to operate the route.

A schedule for a triangular service between Delhi, Sydney and Melbourne has been loaded in to global distribution systems, but inexplicably, the airline has not loaded the schedule in to its own website reservation system.

It also appears the airline will not offer a London to Sydney "Kangaroo Route" service. While there is a connection from the London to Delhi 777-300ER flight which arrives around 10:40 in the morning, on the return the last flight from Delhi to London departs at 14:05 about four hours before the Australia flights arrive. The next flight to London is only at 05:00 the next morning.

The flight duration to Sydney will be about 12h15m while Melbourne will be about 12 hours. The return flights would be about 30 minutes longer.

Effective 29 August 2013
  • AI312 departs Delhi 13:45 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Saturday, arrives Sydney 06:30 next morning.
  • AI311 departs Sydney 08:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, arrives Melbourne 09:35. Departs Melbourne 10:50 arrives Delhi 18:35
  • AI312 departs Delhi 13:00 on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, arrives Melbourne 05:30 next morning.
  • AI311 departs Melbourne 07:00 on Monday, Thursday, Saturday, arrives Sydney 08:30. Departs Sydney 10:00 arrives Delhi 18:10

These schedules are subject to government approvals.

As per website Airlineroute.net
Air India last operated service to Sydney in January 1991 with 1 weekly Delhi – Singapore – Sydney on board Boeing 747; Melbourne last served in April 1981. Perth was served until June 1997.
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Design evolution of the Bangalore Aviation logo

by Devesh Agarwal

Over the years, with your support, Bangalore Aviation has evolved from a simple personal blog, to become India's largest aviation blog, and in the "top 15" of the world.

One the key drivers of this growth is our belief in "CIP" or Continuous Improvement Process. We believe in taking feedback from YOU, our dear readers, and trying to apply them as much as possible. You will observe we do not limit comments on the site, except those are foul in language or non-contributory in nature.

As the site has grown, it has undergone a refreshment of its logo. Today, a small story on the evolution of the Bangalore Aviation logo over the last five years.

The logo in 2008 when we commenced. It was simple and used basic Word-Art techniques.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2008
In 2009, we modified the logo to include the nose of G-OIJB "Ed Force One" the Astraeus Airlines Boeing 757 used by the music group Iron Maiden for their tour of India. Bangalore Aviation obtained exclusive photos of the group at Bangalore Airport.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2009

In late 2010, we realised that the logo needed to be refined to give a more professional look on our business cards. We also wanted to introduce brand colours to signify many things. We wanted colours from the flags of the United States and India, representing the duality of our site. The colour orange, signifies intellect, blue signifies the sky and world of aviation, and white represents purity of thought and integrity. Curved lines were brought in to signify creativity, forward and upward.

Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2010
However, the 2010 logo was a little jarring on the eyes when viewed on the website and could not be easily made in to a square icon to be used on various social media sites. In parallel, 2011 saw Bangalore Aviation gain traction, and a surge in traffic and reputation. By end 2011, based on suggestions from mobile users, we needed to refresh the Bangalore Aviation site, give it a new magazine style front page, along with a new look, brand, and a mobile site.

While I worked on the site itself, I contacted an old and dear friend, Narayan Gopalan, an avid aviation enthusiast and regular Bangalore Aviation reader. Narayan is a communication designer by profession, who has over seven years of work experience with industry big-wigs like Adobe Software India, and Ray + Keshavan The Brand Union, and specialises in working in branding, identity, and interactive domains.

Narayan took up my request, on a pro-bono basis, and I am very thankful for his contribution.

His first version was an evolution of the existing logo. In Narayan's words
Attached, please find an idea for a logo, and extending the branding across collateral. I have used the same colors but modified the shades a bit to contrast and soothe the eye. The concept behind the logo form (the symbol) is the juxtaposition of a cloud (symbolizing the sky) and the icon of a "thought bubble" - representing the thought, and analysis concept. The icon of a plane taking off gives it the aviation touch.

I have used the same structure of your existing site, but changed a few elements. The idea was to keep it simple, without too many colors and gradients so the main focus is on the news and reading the same without distractions. The background image, can be keep changing as shown in the 2 examples.
Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2012 first revision
Narayan and me continued evolving the logo through a series of explorations and revisions. The next major revision, and a precursor to the current logo keeps our original blue, orange, and white colours, highlighting the initials of Bangalore Aviation, B and A, along with the cloud representing both thought and the internet, and the aircraft icon taking off, representing aviation, and forward and upward movement representing the continuous improvement process.
Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2012 precursor revision
The final logo, which is our current logo circa 2012, as described by Narayan
is a play of typography combined with a unique element (the could) suffixed by a aviation related mnemonic
Current Bangalore Aviation logo circa 2012
From this logo, we have also developed two icon logos which are used on our Twitter account, Facebook and Google+ pages.

If you like Narayan's work and want to contact him for your needs, please e-mail him at narayangopalan82 [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks Narayan.
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