Faith in Automation Doomed Asiana 214

The South Korean crew of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed in San Francisco last year because they “over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand,” the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. The crash last July killed three Chinese teenagers (one of whom was run over by fire trucks) and injured 181. The NTSB said the crew relied on an automated throttle upon approach, which had the Boeing 777 flying at 118 mph instead of the target landing speed of 157 mph when it hit a seawall. Pilot Lee Kan Kuk originally said he was “stressed” trying to land the plane without assistance from an airport indicator, but later retracted his statement.