Pilots of the Asiana Airlines Inc. jet that crashed nine days ago fear they will face criminal prosecution in the carrier's home country of South Korea, said people familiar with their thinking, a prospect that alarms U.S. pilot-union leaders and air-safety experts.
The Korean pilots of the Boeing 777, which hit a sea wall after making a dangerously low and slow approach to San Francisco International Airport in good weather, returned to Seoul on Friday. Before leaving, the pilots told associates they are concerned that their government intends to hit them with criminal charges for lapses in the cockpit.
Unlike in the U.S., South Korean law and precedent make that a possibility. South Korean law allows prison sentences of up to three years in the event of pilot negligence.
The captain of a Korean Air DC-10 that crashed in 1989 in Libya went to prison, according to news accounts at the time.
The Asiana pilots told these associates that they didn't expect to face jail time immediately upon arriving home, but they received no such assurances for the long term, according to a person familiar with the details.
Efforts to reach the pilots directly were unsuccessful. The union that represents them, the Air Line Pilots Association of Korea, has criticized the scrutiny of the crew's actions before the crash, saying information released by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has focused only on pilot error while neglecting possible contributing factors.
The South Korean transportation ministry on Wednesday is slated to kick off a four-week probe of the crash, said a senior official with the ministry. The agency plans to delve into pilot training, whether the pilots followed proper approach procedures and their prior experience landing in San Francisco.
The official said there were no current plans to charge the pilots criminally, though the final decision hinges on the probe.
The crash left three dead and dozens injured. It all but destroyed the jet, which had an estimated market value of $63.9 million, according to aviation-consulting firm Avitas.
In a meeting with Korean government officials Monday, Asiana said it would enhance its pilot training, update its data on airports with difficult approaches and move to ensure better cockpit communication with pilots.
The plan was presented as part of a session on risk management attended by eight Korean carriers, and an Asiana spokeswoman declined to elaborate. The airline previously said it planned to beef up certain kinds of training, though Asiana has repeatedly said the pilots on Flight 214 were highly experienced and their training met all domestic and international standards.
Many air-safety experts argue that making pilots criminally liable threatens to chill their voluntary reporting of hazards and prevent airlines from benefiting from other confidential safety information needed to eliminate budding dangers. And when prosecutors pursue prison terms after a crash, critics contend, it makes it harder to determine precisely what happened.
U.S. pilot-union officials and safety advocates have launched a behind-the-scenes effort to head off any criminal action, seeking support from U.S. government and airline officials.
"I am concerned about the issue," said Lee Moak, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest pilot union in North America, which assisted the Asiana pilots during the crash investigation. Criminalization, he said, can end up "crippling the ability to learn from accidents so they can be prevented."
U.S. laws and tradition essentially preclude criminal charges even against pilots who cause fatal accidents, except when their actions are intentional, egregiously reckless or result from drugs or alcohol.
But from Asia to Europe to Latin America, judges and prosecutors over the years have filed criminal cases, typically over the strong objections of labor, independent air-safety groups and the International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of the United Nations.
France, Spain, Brazil and Indonesia are among countries where air crashes have spurred criminal probes. The moves prompted ICAO to set up a special task force that recently submitted recommendations, which remain confidential, to prevent criminalization of accidents.
Kenneth Quinn, the task force's vice chairman and a partner in the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, said criminal action shouldn't follow a crash "unless there is evidence of willful misconduct or gross negligence." Mr. Quinn is general counsel of the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation, which fights air-accident criminalization.
Some say moves to file criminal charges sometimes can be understandable. In countries where crash victims or their families "don't have a viable way to get meaningful compensation" through civil procedures, "it's natural for people look toward criminal prosecution," said James Kreindler, a plaintiffs' attorney with the New York law firm Kreindler & Kreindler LLP.
Meantime, there has been criticism over the NTSB's extensive, early disclosures of preliminary data from its investigation. Some of the pilots' backers feel the focus on apparent pilot error may provide ammunition for those inclined to pursue a criminal case.
Last week, ALPA criticized the safety board for "prematurely releasing" information from recorders aboard Asiana 214, before investigators fully interviewed the pilots. The union also complained that without providing the full context behind data that was made public, such disclosure "represents a potential detriment to flight safety."
An NTSB spokeswoman said "we routinely provide the public with factual information" about accidents. "For the public to have confidence in the investigative process," she said, "transparency and accuracy are critical."
SOURCE
This is sad isn't it? Errors of a pilot that is not being committed willfully being subjected to criminal charges in the country. From having one of the best jobs in the world, you ended up in a small prison cell for not doing your job fitting to expectations.
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