is very safe. absolutely. in fact this is the first time there has been a very large airliner in a fatal crash in the united states since november, 2001 here in new york this is an unprecedented period in american aviation ask a long time between major accidents so this is going to be something that will be looked at closely. we re talking about anything pilots could have done. you were describing debris trail in the fact that you know, maybe they tried to pull up and couldn t and they were able to get the plane down not to have more casualties. from what the witness statements of the passenger say it seems there was a thrust put on before touchdown but likely too late to add air speed and keep it from landing roughly a thousand feet short of the intended touchdown point. in your best estimate is there anything pilots could have done? that will be determine bid what the investigators find because there was likely a
safety engineer and spoke with cnn s john king. let s start with the plane. the boeing 777. you look at the pictures and see it hit close to the edge of the water on the runway, what does that tell you? it tells me, if nothing else, the approach was more shallow than it should have been. they landed or the touchdown point was far short of where they landed. it should never have come close to hitting the seawall at the edge of the runway like that. at that point, how fast is a plane typically traveling and number two, we all get used to technology on airplanes, is the computer flying the plane or the pilot? typically the pilot is hand flying the plane right at the approach there. this was a day, a relatively good weather day. they didn t have to have a full auto on system. even when you have auto-on systems right before touchdown you will have the pilots under positive control of the aircraft. as far as why it hit the way it
we know something has gone wrong, something terrible as ever. it difficult. you know, your instincts take over you don t know what s going on. was it loud? was it screaming. yeah, the moment it touched the runway it was pretty loud. todd curtis former boeing engineer. start with the plane, the boeing 777, when you look at pictures and see where it hit, just at the edge of the runway, close to the water, what does it tell you? it tell me, if nothing else the approach was more shallow than should have been. they landed or the touchdown point was far short of where they intended. it should have never come even close to hitting the seawall at the edge of the runway like that. at that point, number one, how fast is a plane typically traveling? and, number two, we get used to technology on planes, is the computer flying the plane or the pilot flying the plane? typically the pilot is hand