News

Third day of delays and cancellations at SFO

8 Jul 2013 by GrahamSmith

Passengers flying in and out of San Francisco International Airport face a third day of delays and cancellations following the crash landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214.

In the aftermath of Saturday afternoon's accident, in which two people were killed, all runways at SFO were closed and all flights grounded for several hours.

This resulted in the cancellation of almost 450 flights that day. On Sunday, a further 275 flights were cancelled and another 370 delayed.

All major airlines have announced that passengers due to fly to, from or through SFO can change their flights at no cost.

The airport had reopened three runways by 1600 local time on Sunday, allowing it to "increase our arrival rate to 30 or more aircraft per hour".

Only runway 28 Left remains closed and will continue to be so "for the immediate future".

Asiana Airlines Flight 214, a Boeing 777 with 307 people on board, is thought to have clipped the sea wall at the end of the runway as it was coming in to land, causing the loss of its tail section and fire to engulf the fuselage.

Officials said the plane was travelling "significantly below" its target landing speed of 137 knots (157 miles) per hour and that the pilots tried to abort the landing moments before impact.

Two teenage Chinese girls were killed - believed to be the first fatalities in a B777 crash - and dozens injured.

flysfo.com, flyasiana.com

Graham Smith

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