Asiana Airlines says pilot in control was landing a 777 at San Francisco airport for 1st time

SEOUL, South Korea – Asiana Airlines says the pilot in control of the Boeing 777 that crashed in San Francisco had little experience flying that type of plane and was landing one for the first time at that airport.

Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said Monday that Lee Gang-guk was trying to get used to the 777 during Saturday’s crash landing. She says the pilot had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes but had only 43 hours on the 777.

Accident investigators are trying to determine whether pilot error, mechanical problems or something else was to blame for the crash.

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said earlier that the pilots were flying too slowly as they approached the airport and tried to abort the landing but crashed barely a second later.