San Francisco plane crash probe should include plane, airport

The International Air Transport Association found that last year saw only one airline accident out of 250,000 flights. This indicates that airplanes are one of the safest transportations created by human beings. As a plane accident can be large and fatal when it happens, however, it is necessary to find out what caused the accident. Therefore, everything should be on the table for the investigation and any element related to the accident must be found.

The “Swiss Cheese Model,” created by British psychologist James T. Reason, can help people find the causes of a plane accident from many different perspectives. It says an accident is not caused by one mistake in a certain stage but is the result of a series of minor incidents. In other words, a plane accident is a combination of mistakes in several stages such as a pilot’s mistake, a problem of airport facilities, a defect of an airplane, and a controller’s lack of attention.

U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Deborah Hersman said in the beginning stage, “It’ll take more than one year until the final investigation result is released.” But she said in a briefing on July 11 (local time), “The airliner itself, though heavily damaged in the crash, had no malfunctions in any critical systems, including the engines and flight-control surfaces, the autopilot, the auto throttles and the flight director.” She consistently insisted on her stance that focuses on the pilots’ mistake, not the defect of the plane. Furthermore, U.S. media outlets added the claim by ridiculing the pilots’ names.

Even some Korean media reported the incident was caused by the pilot’s lack of experience, stressing that the co-pilot in the cockpit had less than 50 hours of experience in Boeing 777. But this is so out of focus. Pilots often operate different planes and this is not much different from the international standard. In 2008, Korea’s aviation safety was assessed as one of the best by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Various other factors, which the NTSB did not mention, such as defects of the plane and poor airport conditions, need to be considered. Although brand-new planes tend to show good performance and have various ways to respond to unusual conditions, one cannot exclude the possibility of airplane defects given a series of a string of accidents of Boeing planes. As many pilots’ association in various countries said, San Francisco Airport has been notorious among pilots.

Other causes can include the fact that the safety zone was too short compared to the length of the runway and that the auto-landing glide slope did not function properly.

Man-made processes, regulations, and laws are not perfect. The U.S. airport authorities and the NTSB cannot deny that a combination of many factors caused the accident. If any of the factors had prevented, the accident would not have happened.

The purpose of the accident investigation is to find the exact cause and to prevent a repeat of an accident, albeit painful. It must be the courtesy to the victims of the plane crash.