Pilot error implicated in Asiana crash in US

[WASHINGTON] Pilot error was involved in the Asiana Airlines Inc crash that killed three passengers on July 6 in San Francisco after a captain inadvertently disabled a speed control system and the plane crashed into a seawall, documents show.

Lee Kang Kuk, a veteran with Seoul-based Asiana who was being trained on the Boeing Co 777-200ER wide-body, had momentarily adjusted the power without realising the plane's computers then assumed he wanted the engines to remain at idle, according to information released on Wednesday at a US National Transportation Safety Board hearing.

The documents also raise questions about the design of auto-throttles on Boeing aircraft and whether related training has been adequate. The safety board hasn't concluded what caused the crash, which killed three teenage girls from China in the first fatal US airline accident since 2009.