After 112 often interesting sometimes bizarre pages on this topic I thought what does this incident mean to me as a user of the product that aviation serves up-i.e. a passenger .
It seems reasonable that in exchange for my ticket money airlines are supposed to offer me fast, safe transportation from A to B. Implicit in that contractual arrangement, to my mind, is that they should make every possible effort to ensure the flight is safe by :-
1 Having properly maintained and equipped aircraft for the role.
2 Having properly trained flight crew capable of maintain safe operation in all reasonable circumstances.
3 Not fly to any airfield that they think is beyond the capabilities of 1 or 2.
Clearly in this case Asiana dropped the ball, they must know all about SFO and its ATC peculiarities (on one trip there I was astonished to find ATC allowed us to take off ‘the wrong way-i.e. against the landing stream. No doubt all coordinated etc but something I could never imagine happening at LHR or FRA). Asiana must have been aware that visual approaches are far from unknown at SFO and that as the ILS was inoperative and had been for some time so why didn’t they plan for it.
Leaving aside all the speculation about converting from Airbus to Boeing ( surely even a stressed tired pilot can remember what kind of plane he was flying (not like it was A321 vs an A319 was it) , tiredness. Fast speaking US ATC, A/T Modes, and a score of other rather thin excuses it comes back to the fact when assessing those three elements that concern me as passenger
1- Nothing was wrong with the aircraft other than a few tricky issues with the Auto throttle modes
2- A lot was wrong with the crews overall competence for the task- I just cannot readily accept most of the ‘excuses or reasons’. To me as a customer a crew having to fly a visual approach on a CAVOK day because the navaids are inoperative is surely a fundamental, realistic and reasonable expectation of a competent crew
3- A few quirks for the airport approach process that can distract or hurry the crew .
It looks to me like an absolute field day for US lawyers and for Asiana a massive legal and compensation bill , insurance complications and horrendous negative publicity in one of their major markets.
And personally I would not fly Asiana any time soon even if some people would suggest that made me racist.