Asiana A350 crew warned of low altitude on approach to San Francisco

Air-ground communications at San Francisco indicate that a tower controller warned an Asiana Airbus A350-900 crew over the jet’s altitude after it sank below the glidepath on approach. The crew of Asiana flight OZ212 from Seoul had been conducting the approach to runway 28L, at about 14:00 on 23 February. Shortly after clearing the aircraft to land, and then confirming the landing clearance to the crew, the tower controller transmitted: “Check your altitude immediately, altimeter is 3026.” The exchange was captured by communications archive LiveATC. “Are you correcting?” the controller asked, before the Asiana crew responded that they were going around. After being told to fly the runway heading, the crew appeared to state that they were climbing to 4,000ft – to which the controller stressed that the aircraft needed to maintain 3,000ft. The height of the aircraft at the point of the controller’s altitude warning has not been confirmed, but the A350 was in the vicinity of Coyote Point around 2.7nm from the runway. Its crew completed the go-around and returning to land safely on 28L about 15min later. Circumstances of the incident have yet to become clear, including whether the crew was aware of the altitude situation before the controller’s warning. Meteorological data from the airport at the time shows good visibility and no adverse weather conditions.<br/>