Anyone a theory to what went wrong?
Was it a manual landing? If so, why didn't the pilot follow the ILS?
Should ATC have kept closer eye on the approach?
Why were the warnings too late to abort?

This could have been a catastrophic disaster. Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

According to various reports the ILS was switched off for maintenance - nice clear day, it shouldn't have been needed.

The pilot flying the landing apparently had over 10,000 hours, but only forty-something iirc on the 777. It was the first time he had landed a 777 at SF. Another pilot on board had more 777 hours, but doesn't seem to have intervened in time.

It's starting to look like pilot error, with no suspicion of problems with the plane so far. Certainly not a repeat of the BA/Heathrow crash landing - conditions were different, and modifications have been made to the fuel system since Heathrow. It seems they were just too low, and didn't react until too late.

Also, it appears that only one of the fatalities may have been from the crash - it seems the other may have been run over by an airport emergency vehicle!

didn't know what SF777 was till i just googled it

Pilot error is my guess, inexperienced, not much experience with that plane and never landed that plane at that airport

Only thing that saved them was luck Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I still don't understand what went wrong.
Should ATC have alerted the flight deck?
And what sort of warning system is it that says 'Pull up, but you're going to crash anyway'.

Surely, one way or another, the pilot must be warned advance enough to allow adequate time to take preventative action? Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

Seems odd, the pilot was a trainee and reports also suggest that one of the two girls killed was actually run over by the emergency services. p****d off with a Digital Keyboard Warrior

As pab has already said, the crash was most likely caused by pilot error as there were no reported faults with the plane. It is most unlikely that it was caused by the fuel freezing in the fuel lines like the 777 that crashed at Heathrow in 2008 as that problem has now been rectified. The Boeing 777 is a plane with an extremely good safety record.

I haven't heard about anyone killed on the ground? The two people that were killed were Chinese women seated in the rear of the plane.

Watching all the series of Aircrash Investigation may become useful one day.

Reports on the news say one of the two may have been struck by a emergency vehicle (bbc news) Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I hadn't heard about that. How dreadful if it turns out to be true.

It is, however, possible that even if one of the students was hit by an emergency vehicle she was already fatally injured, as it appears she had been sitting at the rear of the plane with the other fatality. It seems the authorities are, not entirely surprisingly, holding back further information until they're sure what happened.

My first reaction on seeing this was, I admit, that it must have been a mechanical failure, as no pilot experienced enough to be flying the 777 could possibly have crashed it in such good flying conditions! But as more information comes out it looks less and less like a mechanical, and more and more like human error.

Unfortunately under pressure people do things which appear, to those observing, to be inexplicable. And for that one can perhaps understand the pilot in command getting into trouble. But one can't help wondering why the pilot supervising didn't do something earlier to intervene.

As for ATC, it wouldn't be usual for them to intervene in such circumstances. They'd be busy with other aircraft, and assuming that the pilots knew how to fly the plane!

the amateur film that was on tv last night showed the plane in what looked like a very "nose up" configuration just before it hit the ground. The question was raised about if the pilot did not have sufficient airspeed and in effect the plane stalled onto the ground.
Seems incredible that only two of the people on board were actually killed. The emergency evacuation was obviously very successful!

Agree with pab. I don't understand either why the other pilot didn't intervene.
There were four pilots on board and there are four seats on the triple seven flight deck. We don't know where they were sitting at the time, but it's usual practice after long haul for both crews to be sitting in the flight deck.

Could this possibly be a case of being too reliant on ILS/Autopilot landings as they were switched off I wonder? Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

npinks wrote:

Reports on the news say one of the two may have been struck by a emergency vehicle (bbc news)

America and friendly fire  p****d off with a Digital Keyboard Warrior

So Friendly fire (engine) caused death of foreign student Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

I wont comment on what I think it is as there can be many possibilities and not all human ( hence blackboxes for voice and data ).... how ever if you tie first hand reports in to this flight track you can not help think how bad it could have been.

For the record this is why I sit in the middle of any flight as its the strongest point....

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=56...mp;theater

Click image to enlarge

It's been mentioned in news stories that the auto-throttles may not have worked to maintain the correct landing speed. So when the pilot tried to pull the nose up the plane lost speed and then lift.

LoP