Crime & Safety

SFO Plane Crash: Bayshore Highway Hotel Row Patrons React

Travelers say there's been too much speculation over cause of Flight 214's crash landing, express sadness over tragedy, apprehension about flying.

Some Bayshore Highway hotel row travelers in South San Francisco said Monday there's been too much speculation about what caused a Boeing 777 carrying 307 passengers to hit the seawall Saturday morning during a crash landing at SFO that killed two and injured 49 passengers.

Others, however, said they thought pilot or mechanical error caused the airplane to strike the runway "too low and too slow" causing its tail to split off, bounce and come to a violent halt before a fire ignited.

All interviewed, nonetheless, expressed sadness and sympathy for the passengers and crew who suffered through the ordeal during Asiana Airlines 214's accident.


'Too Many Theories, Assumptions'

Australian national John Potter, who was flying Monday evening back to Sydney out of SFO after a two-week-plus business and holiday trip, said the assumptions about what happened from media pundits and so-called air travel experts were "pointless."

"Nobody knows. Everyone is trying to make news out of nothing. Yes, there's been an accident. They're looking into it, but just calm down and we'll eventually find out what the problem was," Potter said. "That's one thing about America ... there's endless talk without much fact."

Pilot or Mechanical Error?

Potter said he thought if pilot error was the reason for the wreck, the National Transportation Safety Board needed to ensure proper training of pilots and if mechanical troubles occurred, the agency needed to look further into aircraft safety.

Mechanic Savon Sngoeun, who took pictures of the crash with his Smartphone soon after the impact, said he had heard in the news that the crash was caused by "pilot misjudgment."

"He didn't have enough training for that kind of plane," he said. "I don't think the pilot had landed here before."

Will Tabor, of Los Angeles, said he thought the accident had been caused by pilot error or the plane's engine stalling.

"I hope they [NTSB] figure it out so that if it was a mechanical, they make sure it doesn't happen again and if it was pilot error, they make sure they train the pilots better or don't let an inexperienced pilot land in that particular runway since it seems a little bit difficult," Tabor said, adding that winds and being over the water make landing challenging at SFO.

San Mateo resident John Spencer was convinced: "It was pilot error ... It's amazing they got that many people off the plane without any more injuries than there were.

"There were four pilots on board. How do you run into the sea wall?" he asked. "Too low and too slow. Somebody should have been looking out the window."

Sadness, Apprehension

A young woman outside the Best Western, who declined to be identified, said she was flying back to DC today after attending a wedding in the Bay Area and thought the wreck was tragic.

Terrell Hamilton, who lives in Burlingame, said he was home when his daughter called him to ask him about the accident. "I was tripping out because it's right here," he said, while walking on the San Francisco Bay Trail, right next to the water that separates the runway from hotel row.

Hamilton said his daughter could see the smoke from her window in San Bruno. "She was trying to figure out what happened," he said.

Limousine driver Philip Copeland said he was now apprehensive about planes landing at SFO and hoped NTSB officials would take steps necessary to "make sure it doesn't happen again."

"It's really unfortunate ... My heart goes out to those who lost their lives and of course all the people who were injured," Copeland said. "I don't fly. I just pick people up."

Tabor said he was getting ready to fly out of SFO Tuesday for Utah and was concerned about air traffic, but was hoping the airlines would provide safe travel to passengers going forward.

Tabor flew into San Jose Monday morning after departing from Burbank and drove to SFO to leave for Utah.

Los Angeles resident Nick Semple, originally from the UK, said the accident was scary "because we're not too clear about the causes. We don't know if it was pilot error, or confusion at the airport. That doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence."

Semple said he hoped NTSB officials would make sure airplane maintenance wouldn't disrupt the ability of planes to land and make sure inexperienced pilots don't land planes at busy international airports like SFO.

Oakland resident Emily Gerber called the accident "a horrible thing."

"I feel for all the people who had to experience such a terribly traumatic [accident,]" Gerber said. "It's really amazing that so many people were OK. It's scary. It's hard not to think about flying into SFO and the many times we've all come down on that runway and seen the water. It's miraculous in a way that the planes come down and they land on the runway. You sort of take it for granted that it's safe and it's not going to be a problem."

Marilyn and Marvin Greenwald, exiting the Max's Restaurant on hotel row, said she thought the tragedy could have probably been avoided because the pilots on board the aircraft could have seen the sea wall on such a clear day.

"In the meantime all of these people are ill. I'm glad a lot of them were intelligent enough to get up before the fire started and my heart goes out to them and hope to God this never happens again," Marilyn Greenwald said.

Hotels such as the Holiday Inn Express, the Hyatt Regency, Best Western, the Max's Restaurant are all located on Bayshore Highway and back up to the Bay waters and all patrons were taking time Monday to look across the windy shores to the airport's runway.

"We're looking at the crash," said Greenville, TN resident Norman Vance. "We heard about it on the radio ... We're fortunate that so many survived."

His wife, Dianne Vance, was saddened by the loss of life. "It was just a bunch of major errors ... It's a horrible thing. It's sad."












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