Asiana flight crash at San Francisco

[bbratuse]

possible CRM issue

let my try to shed some light on possible CRM issue in this terrible accident based on insider information I got yesterday although I do not work for Asiana (I work for KAL in training department as instructor..)

I discussed the crash with one of the older KAL captains who is my colleague in training department and who knew the crew and immediately he pointed out that main issue might be that left seat pilot PF Mr.Lee,Kang Kook was senior to instructor doing PM duties from right seat....by senior I mean they both are graduates from Korea Aerospace University and PF Mr.Lee was senior class in University to instructor...

People not familiar how Korean society works will say "so what?" but people working and living in Korea will say: "Ahhh that explains why instructor allowed for situation to deteriorate that bad that it became unrecoverable.."

You must understand that seniority pretty much determines everything in Korean society interpersonal relationships.. be it by university class seniority,Air Force class seniority or simply by age

Working here now for 3 years I heard million times Koreans saying "ohh I can not say anything he is my senior in Air Force..or University.." or even if one Korean pilot is introducing me to the other usually first sentence is "this is Mr...so and so he is my senior/junior from so and so"..

So general talk here among instructors is that could be one of the crucial factors in this freak accident...Being here longer time and seeing how things are done between seniors and juniors in cockpit (example: if cpt is Air Force class junior to FO, FO is the boss in cockpit no doubt about it..an same applies to Aerospace University graduates) I agree that this can be the case.

Also to mention that seniority "issue" is MUCH more pronounced if 2 pilots are graduates of same organization such as it was in this case.

Anyways...we shall see what has really happened when CVR transcript becomes available but kind of explains mystery (at least to me) of late instructor reaction to unstable approach..