Page 25 - Tail Section News Today

Rating on the 777 and getting initial operating experience on the 777. >> shepard: investigators say the planes tail hit the sea wall dragging debris for hundreds of feet down that runway. they tell us they found part of the tail section in san francisco bay. and some amateur video of passengers escaping down the emergency slides right after that crash. officials say almost 200 people were hurt. two passengers died. both were teenage girls from china headed to summer camp here in the united stat...

Beginning, the middle and the end as it relates to how this all unfolded, how it came to be that this plane had to make this crash landing. that that youre looking at on your screen there, that is going to be so critical in this investigation. candy? >> and there is -- first of all, black boxes are not black. second of all, what is it in these -- there more than one recorder. one records data, the sort of thing richard was just talking about, altitude and all that. and the other one is what? >> ...

Would be in the water, near the water, what have you. what happened to that particular person? i just thought about that, which is a question to be answered here. the missing tail section, thats usually where the recording devices are. that can withstand, they can withstand a lot of pressure, a lot of damage. >> thats correct. its not necessarily in the very back of the aircraft where you saw the three major pieces. it is in the rear of the aircraft. its designed to survive that kind of crash an...

Approach and what, if anything, was said in the last seconds? if nothing was said, thats also critical. that means somebody wasnt doing their job. >> to both of you, im getting this from a pilot. he says you can see the tail section fail when it reaches the nose of the taxiing aircraft. it collapsed right there where i said it did. the engineers at boeing are going to care about that. im sure the families of those girls are going to care about how their children ended up on the runway. asiana wi...

That as an aviation attorney and as a pilot, what are you assessing? >> well, significantly low means about 30% lower than the air speed he should be at. thats when the aircraft is going to stop flying and start crashing. but there were some warning signs to this crew. even in the last seven or nine seconds when the stick shaker comes on as richard pointed out, it is a violent shaking of the control yolk. thats a four seconds before impact. and the golden rule there is that any time you get the ...

Did they have proper rest and proper fuel for the aircraft, et cetera? theyll also look at the actual procedures for this landing. were they doing the right approach with the right frequencies for the instrument landing system, lets say. and a variety of other aspects of the flight. >> looking at the video, what initial conclusions do you draw about the breakup? i mean, the missing tail section, et cetera? >> the biggest conclusion i drew looking at the debris trail was there was debris going ri...

I dont know what degree, you know, probably 20 degrees or so. it was pitched up a little bit. and to me it looked like it was either, you know, trying to climb back up or maybe trying to get the nose up to avoid the edge of the bay there. its kind of funny for me. that i had very similar incident at dfw once upon a time when i was flying in and the same exact thing happened. we were coming down and our plane diverted the landing right as we were about to touchdown. the tarmac. because there was ...

Fred? >> yeah. it was -- again, it was -- you know, my initial thought was that nose was up because he was trying to divert. but i also was thinking that if he had just came in normal that he was landing normal that, you know, the flight -- his position looked, you know, maybe a little lower than some of the other planes but i couldnt say that for sure. he looked like, you know, the reason he impacted is because i saw that the nose in the air and the tail was down and, you know, he just ran out ...

Coming down the evacuation chutes. >> were you able -- on the video, we cant hear an explosion. we cant hear the moment of impact. could you hear it where you were? >> yes. >> you could. describe it to us if you will. what did it sound like? >> it wasnt an explosion by any means before the plane impacted. it was, you know, again, it was just -- it looked like a normal landing, you know, maneuver. but he was just coming in nose high. and then i seen the tail section of the plane strike the tarmac...

People out. >> reporter: dozens of people are still hospitalized and hospitals from san francisco all the way to palo alto at stanford university. at least seven are in critical condition, including an infant. >> what more do we know about the two students from china who died in that crash? >> reporter: well, as you said earlier, craig, these are two 16-year-old girls from china. they were part of -- one of two groups from middle schools in china who were coming to the united states for summer c...