Asiana Airlines plane forced to ‘go around’ after coming in too low at SFO

Old_Joe

And here's a pic of that 747 on approach. From the nose-up attitude I would guess that the pilot has just begun cranking up the airspeed to go around for another approach try.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that officials were investigating an incident in which an Asiana Airlines aircraft apparently dipped down to a precariously low elevation as it approached San Francisco International Airport last weekend.

At about 2 p.m. Sunday, an SFO air traffic controller alerted the crew on Asiana Airlines Flight 212 that the aircraft had descended to a low altitude — forcing the crew to perform a “go-around,” according to a preliminary statement from the FAA. The aircraft was traveling from Incheon International Airport in Seoul to SFO, according to the airline tracking site FlightAware.

An FAA spokesperson did not say how low the aircraft descended. Data from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the plane was at one point about 375 feet above the water of San Francisco Bay roughly four miles from the SFO runway.

The incident on Sunday appeared to be similar to the 2013 crash of an Asiana Airlines jetliner at SFO, which killed two people and injured dozens of people. The aircraft struck a seawall bordering the runway while landing and caught fire.

In what appeared to be an audio recording of the low-altitude alert, which was posted online, an air traffic controller tells the Asiana Airlines crew, “Low altitude alert! Asiana 212 heavy, check your altitude immediately.” Seconds later, the air traffic controller asked, “Asiana 212 heavy, are you correcting?” to which the flight crew says they were “going around.”

The air traffic control radar systems, which track flights and monitor their altitudes, provide a “Low Altitude” alert when the system predicts an aircraft is descending to an altitude that is not consistent with the phase of the flight

Korean Air/Asiana seems to have a very troubled history of landing at SFO. The picture and report excerpts are from a current report in The San Francisco Chronicle.

Mona

@Old_Joe did you see the Southwest flight abort landing to avoid the private jet crossing the runway?

Old_Joe

Hi @Mona- Thanks- I just became aware of that while posting the other report about the two incidents in Washington and Chicago.

yogibearbull

X/Twitter post shoes near miss at Chicago Midway. Pilot of the plane landing had a great presence of mind when he saw a smaller jet suddenly crossing the runway just ahead.
https://x.com/AirportWebcams/status/1894434106122899497/video/1

Old_Joe

Yes indeed.