one of the two 16 year-olds who died. they don t know if that child died as a result of being hit by a fire engine or whether the child was already dead. but, unfortunately, that s yet another component to this investigation and the fire department s investigating, along with the coroner s office and the ntsb will look at that as well. a tragic situation in san francisco. coming up, as edward snowden s future now seems to lie with three lat din american countries, his leaks draw new scrutiny on one of america s most secret courts. we ll discuss fisa s broad powers and the meaning of the word relevant. next. is like hammering.
seven seconds before impact the crew discussed they were not at their target air speed of 137 knots. they were well below 137. it wasn t just give or take a few knots. the ntsb says it could take months to come up with a definitive cause with no evidence of mechanical error. all signs are currently pointing to pilot error. joining me now from san francisco is nbc news correspondent tom costello. tom, what are we learning at this point about the plane s final moments and the latest on the injury totals? reporter: well, the latest on the investigation is that by the way, over my shoulder is where the plane rests just on the other side here of the water. you can see the burned-out shell sitting there. ntsb investigators are on the scene, along with fire an rescue personnel. what they are focusing really on here is why was this plane coming in so low and so slow. it was coming in well below 137
knots. ideally when you want to come in here and land a 777 at san francisco, you want to come in at 137, maybe plus 5 knots to be safe. they were well below that, 15 or more knots below 137 so this is a concern to investigators. this was an experienced crew but the guy who was actually at the controls who was piloting the plane had only 43 hours in the 777. he was 1 of 4 pilots on-board this plane and he had 10,000 hours total as a pilot, many of those in other planes. for example, the 747. had he landed here at san francisco before in other planes. but this was the first attempt in a 777 here at san francisco. he had other pilots in the cockpit. so why did they not notice their air speed? this is a critical question the ntsb is focusing on. were they talking to each other and distracted? was there some sort after cultural thing going on here where they were deferring to one or the other? all of that is going to be part of this investigation as they try to figure out why would four
give it a little speed there but it was too late for this plane to in any way attempt to go around. that s when they hit the seawall barrier. these are all critical questions. i would also emphasize that nothing is ruled out on this investigation. the ntsb has not said this is pilot error, it s not ruled out any mechanical problem. that will take months of investigative process. they will not come one a final conclusion to what caused this crash for probably 12 to 18 months. they ve already got leading theories but they re only theories and they have a very methodical process to go through and look at the engines, avio c avioni avionics, the entire air frame structure, pilot performance, training at this particular airline, what was going on inside the cockpit. that will all be a part of this investigation. one more tragic twist to this that we should mention. the san francisco fire department is now saying it believes it is possible underlying possible that one of its responding f