Pilot's first 777 into San Francisco
Lack of experience on aircraft type among factors investigators are considering, along with airport, plane equipment and guidance system
The pilot at the controls of an Asiana plane that crashed-landed was guiding a Boeing 777 into the San Francisco airport for the first time, and tried but failed to abort the landing after coming in too slowly, aviation and airline officials said.
It was unclear if the pilot's inexperience with the aircraft - he had only 43 hours of flight time on a 777 - played a role in Saturday's crash, in which two Chinese students, Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16, died.
Officials were investigating whether the airport or plane's equipment could have also malfunctioned before the plane slammed into the runway, broke apart and burst into flames.
Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers survived and more than a third did not need admission to hospital. Only a small number were critically injured.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board, Deborah Hersman, said on Sunday the slow speed of Flight 214 on the final approach triggered a warning that the plane could stall, and an effort was made to abort the landing but the plane crashed barely a second later.