Ten days before Asiana Airlines Flight 214 came up short of the runway at San Francisco International Airport, the airport moved the runway's target landing area 300 feet farther from San Francisco Bay. Aviation experts said the change might have been a big factor in preventing the crash from turning into a large-scale disaster.
On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the Asiana plane's landing gear clipped the sea wall, causing it to crash. Had the plane been undershooting but aiming for a point closer to the water—as the runway was previously configured—the crash could have been more deadly, experts said.
"That 300 feet saved him," said Kit Darby, a former United Airlines pilot who says he has landed hundreds of times at SFO, as the San Francisco airport is commonly known. "If they were 300 feet short, the plane would have been draped over the sea wall at best. And at worst, it would've been short of it," he said.
John Cox, a former US Airways Group Inc. LCC +0.64% pilot who now runs aviation-consulting firm Safety Operating Systems, said it is difficult to know why the plane landed short, but "if the trajectory was the same and he hit the water…it would've been worse."
11/07/13 Jack Nicas/Wall Street Journal
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On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the Asiana plane's landing gear clipped the sea wall, causing it to crash. Had the plane been undershooting but aiming for a point closer to the water—as the runway was previously configured—the crash could have been more deadly, experts said.
"That 300 feet saved him," said Kit Darby, a former United Airlines pilot who says he has landed hundreds of times at SFO, as the San Francisco airport is commonly known. "If they were 300 feet short, the plane would have been draped over the sea wall at best. And at worst, it would've been short of it," he said.
John Cox, a former US Airways Group Inc. LCC +0.64% pilot who now runs aviation-consulting firm Safety Operating Systems, said it is difficult to know why the plane landed short, but "if the trajectory was the same and he hit the water…it would've been worse."
11/07/13 Jack Nicas/Wall Street Journal
