Asiana Airlines vows probe after plane skids off runway after botched landing
Plane smashed into antenna as it landed before skidding into grassy field
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 15 April, 2015, 11:04pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 16 April, 2015, 2:55am
Agence France-Presse in Tokyo
Officials check the damaged communications antenna.
Investigators in Japan are studying why an Asiana Airways plane smashed into a communications antenna as it came in to land at Hiroshima airport, before skidding off the runway to end up sideways on a grassy field, injuring up to 27 people.
The accident had echoes of the airline's fatal 2013 crash in San Francisco.
Aerial footage from Hiroshima airport in western Japan showed the localiser antenna array - a large gate-like structure, six metres high that sits around 300 metres from the start of the runway - splintered, with debris spread towards the landing strip.
Sets of wheel marks were visible on the grass area in front of the runway, while large fragments of the localiser - which aircraft use to find the landing strip - were on the tarmac. Several hundred metres away, skid marks showed how the Airbus A320 careered off the runway and rotated more than 90 degrees.
What appeared to be a chunk of the localiser could be seen dangling from one wing and emergency escape chutes were deployed. Those on board flight OZ162 from Incheon to Hiroshima, spoke of their confusion.
"There was smoke coming out and some of the oxygen masks fell down. Cabin attendants were in such a panic and I thought 'we are going to die'," a woman told Japanese networks.
A man wearing a neck brace said he "saw flames and smoke filled the plane".
An Asiana Airlines passenger jet skidded off the runway after landing at Hiroshima airport. Photo: Reuters
All 73 passengers and eight crew evacuated safely, and no one was killed, but 27 people were injured, Japanese officials said. An aviation safety official at the transport ministry in Tokyo said teams of investigators were on their way.
"The left side of the aircraft's horizontal tail was damaged... but how the accident occurred should be determined as the transport safety board carry out their investigation," he said.
The South Korean carrier said 18 passengers - 14 Japanese, two Koreans and two Chinese - had been hurt.
There was no explanation for the discrepancy between Asiana and the Japanese authorities.
"Asiana Airlines apologises for causing concern to the passengers and the people over the accident," Asiana said.
"Asiana Airlines has immediately set up a response team to cope with the aftermath.
When an Asiana flight crashed in San Francisco in July 2013, it left three people dead and 182 injured.
US investigators concluded that a mismanaged approach for landing in a highly automated cockpit was the probable cause of the accident, in which a Boeing 777 clipped a sea wall with its landing gear, then crashed and burst into flames.
The cause of Tuesday's accident was not yet known but "it looks very similar to the San Francisco" incident said Akira Maene, a former pilot at leading Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways.
"Passengers' lives were saved because the angle of hitting [the runway] was shallow," he said.
"It was just one step away from a major disaster."
