The pilot of South Korea's Asiana Air Flight 214 that crashed as it was attempting to land at the San Francisco International Airport on Saturday had only 43 hours training in the Boeing 777 and was attempting to land that category of aircraft for the first time according to the airlines.

According to the NTSB, the aircraft had been coming in to land well below its target speed as it made its final approach at the airport. The aircraft, despite efforts to pull the jet up, struck the retaining wall at the seaward end of the strip short of the runway.

A verbal abort request came a second and a half before striking the sea wall, much to late to avert the accident. The stall warning sounded right after. The flight crew, sevenn seconds before impact, tried to accelerate the aircraft to clear the wall to no avail. NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman revealed flight recorder information that concurred that the crew attempted to accelerate durng that period at a news conference at the airport.

According to reports, the runway guidance system has been off-line for weeks as construction continues at the airport. That guidance system includes the glide slope indicator that aids the pilots in judging their altitude on approach.

Two 16-year-old Chinese girls died as a result of the crash of the 777. The girls were traveling with a group of about 30 students and teachers traveling to a summer camp from China’s Zhejiang province. A San Francisco fire department said that one of the girls may have been run over by an emergency vehicle responding to the crash. Autopsy results have not yet been released, but spokesperson for the fire department has stated that the injuries sustained by the girl are consistent with that of a vehicular accident.

Asiana Air has released a statement saying that mechanical failure did not appear to be a factor in the crash. Yoon Young-doo the President of Ariana Airline stated to reporters outside of the airlines corrporate headquarters in Seoul, “For now, we acknowledge that there were no problems caused by the 777-200 plane or engines,”

Two hospital in the SanFrancisco area, Stanford and San Francisco General Hospital report that 42 people are being treated for injuries there. Six people remain in critical condition at SF General with another 13 in less serious condition. DStanford reports that three remain in critical condition and another ten are in serious condition. Another five are being treated elsewhere.

The 777 had 291 passengers and 16 crew on board at the time of the accident. 64 of whom were U.S. citizens. A majority of the passengers on board were of Chinese nationality.

Although the pilot was relatively inexperienced in 777s and was still training, another pilot, with extensive experience was in the cockpit acting as his trainer. The pilot-in-training, 46-year-old Lee Kang Kuk, had 9,793 total flight hours and was licensed in 2001. 49-year-old Lee Jung Min joined the airlines in 1996 and had 3,22o hours on the 777. Kuk was transitioning from the 7337, of which he had extensive flight time.