U.S. regulators fined Korean carrier Asiana Airlines $500,000 for taking up to five days to contact the families of passengers involved in a fatal plane crash last year in San Francisco, the first time the government has fined an airline for such a slow crash response.
Asiana took too long to notify and assist the families of the 291 passengers aboard Flight 214 from Seoul, which struck a sea wall as it attempted to land at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday.
The accident killed three people and injured more than 180. The department said Asiana contacted three-quarters of the families in about two days, and didn’t reach some until five days after the crash.
Asiana said in a statement that it “provided extensive support to the passengers and their families following the accident and will continue to do so.”
The airline said in a regulatory filing that it faced a number of challenges in the aftermath of the crash, including problems securing family contact information for all passengers, and was revising its practices. Asiana also said that “like many foreign carriers, it had few trained employees to attend to post-accident responsibilities” and relied in part on its U.S. alliance partner to provide assistance.
Since 1997, the U.S. has required foreign airlines to develop and adhere to “family-assistance plans” to handle the aftermath of plane crashes. Airlines must notify victims’ families “as soon as practicable” after a crash and publicize a telephone number for the families to call, among other requirements, the department said. U.S. carriers have to establish similar plans.
For more than 18 hours after the crash, the only Asiana number available for victims’ families was the airline’s reservations line, which required callers to “navigate through cumbersome automated menus before being connected to an Asiana employee,” the department said. The company also took two days to send enough personnel to San Francisco to deal with the crash aftermath, the department said.
At the time, aviation and crisis consultants criticized the airline for a slow response to the crash, including its decision to not hire any media representatives in the U.S. It also took Asiana Chief Executive Yoon Young-doo three days to arrive in San Francisco.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said a fine against Asiana seemed imminent after its slow response to the crash. “It appeared to be quite chaotic in the first 24 to 36 hours” after the crash, he said. “That’s really unacceptable.”
Asiana’s response was further proof that some foreign carriers don’t take the family-assistance plans seriously, said Mr. Goelz, an author of the 1997 law that requires such plans.
Overseas airlines have to file family-assistance plans with the Transportation Department as part of its approval process for new flights. Mr. Goelz examined a number of carriers’ plans filed in recent years, “and many appeared to have been done from a template” he said. “My hope is the Asiana fine will ignite some interest in the 1997 law and have [foreign airlines] reassess how seriously they take it.”
The department said in a regulatory filing that the fine “establishes a strong deterrent to future similar unlawful practices by Asiana and other carriers.”
Separately, the cause of death of Ye Mengyuan, a 16-year-old passenger who federal investigators say was run over twice by firetrucks after being ejected onto the tarmac following the Asiana crash, remains in contention.
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault ruled Ms. Ye was alive on the tarmac and likely died as a result of being run over by one of the trucks responding to the accident. But a report by investigators from San Francisco International Airport and San Francisco Fire Department concluded in January the teenage girl was already dead when she lay on the tarmac, covered by firefighting foam.
Mr. Foucrault, who didn’t immediately return a call for comment Tuesday, had told Bay Area press outlets in January that he stood by his report. Ms. Ye’s parents in China, Gan Ye and Xia Yun Zheng, on Jan. 6 filed a wrongful death claim with the city of San Francisco. A spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the claim was being reviewed by that office, but he didn’t know its status.
If the claim is denied, the family could file a lawsuit against the city. In their report, airport and city officials called the incident “regrettable” but added it happened while firefighters were preoccupied battling a fire amid a risk of explosion. They suggested the aviation industry help devise standards for avoiding the risk of running over ejected passengers.
–Susan Carey and Jim Carlton contributed to this article.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
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