An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 plane is seen in this aerial image after it crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport in California on July 6, 2013. REUTERS/Jed Jacobsohn 
 
 WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration is failing to ensure that airline pilots maintain their flying skills so they can safely take control of an aircraft from automated systems during an unexpected event, according to a U.S. Transportation Department report released on Monday. 
 
 The report by the department's Office of the Inspector General concludes that the FAA cannot determine how often pilots fly manually and has not ensured that airline training programs adequately focus on manual skills. 
 
 Airline pilots typically fly planes manually on landings and take-offs, leaving the aircraft under the control of automated technology 90 percent of the time. While automated systems have generally improved aviation safety, experts say the practice and the growing complexity of automated technology have raised concerns about flying skills. 
 
 The government watchdog also found that the U.S. aviation regulatory agency lacks the ability to ensure that pilots are fully trained to use and monitor automated flight systems. 
 
 "The agency is missing important opportunities to ensure that pilots maintain skills needed to safely fly and recover in the event of a failure with flight deck automation or an unexpected event," the report said. 
 
 An FAA spokesman declined to comment. But he pointed to an FAA memorandum contained in the report, in which the agency shared the inspector general's concerns and said it was developing training guidelines and discussing operations and training with industry stakeholders including airlines, pilots and flight attendants. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board in 2014 found that an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crashed and caught fire at San Francisco International Airport in 2013 because the pilot lacked critical skills and the flight crew relied too heavily on an automated system it did not fully understand. Three people died and 49 others were seriously injured in the crash. 
 
 In a separate case, the NTSB said that 49 passengers and crew members aboard a Colgan Air Inc Bombardier DHC-8-400 regional flight died in 2009 after the flight crew failed to monitor the plane's slowing airspeed while on instrument approach to Buffalo-Niagara International Airport in upstate New York. The crew responded incorrectly to an automated warning of an imminent stall. 
 
 The plane crashed into a residence, killing everyone on board and a man on the ground. 
 
 (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler) ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is falling short in ensuring airline pilots keep up their flying skills and get full training on how to monitor sophisticated automated control systems in cockpits, according to the Transportation Department's internal watchdog. 
 
 FILE - This Aug. 26, 2010, file photo, shows the view from inside a Boeing 787 full-flight simulator in Renton, Wash. The Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to ensure airline pilots keep up their... (Associated Press) 
 
 Most airline flying today is done through automated systems that pilots closely monitor. Pilots typically use manual flying skills only briefly during takeoffs and landings. Studies and accident investigations have raised concern that pilots' manual flying skills are becoming rusty and that pilots have a hard time staying focused on instrument screens for long periods. 
 
 But the Federal Aviation Administration isn't making sure that airline training programs adequately address the ability of pilots to monitor the flight path, automated systems and actions of other crew members, the Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General found. Only five of 19 airline flight simulator training plans reviewed by investigators specifically mentioned pilot monitoring. 
 
 The FAA also isn't well positioned to determine how often airline pilots get a chance to manually fly planes and hasn't ensured that airline training programs adequately focus on manual flying, according to the report, obtained by The Associated Press. It has not been released publicly. 
 
 In January 2013, the agency issued a safety alert to airlines encouraging them to promote opportunities for pilots to practice manual flying in day-to-day operations and during pilot training. But the FAA hasn't followed up to determine whether airlines are following the recommendation, the report said. 
 
 The FAA published new rules in 2013 requiring airlines to update their training programs to enhance pilot monitoring and manual flying skills, but the agency is still working on guidance to airlines on how to do that, the report said. Airlines aren't required to comply with the rules until 2019, the report said. 
 
 "Because FAA hasn't determined how carriers should implement the new requirements or evaluated whether pilots' manual flying time has increased, the agency is missing important opportunities to ensure that pilots maintain skills needed to safely fly and recover in the event of a failure with flight deck automation or an unexpected event," the report said. 
 
 The rules on enhancing training were prompted in part by the 2009 crash of a regional airliner while approaching Buffalo, New York. The crash killed all 49 people on board and a man on the ground. 
 
 An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board revealed that the pilots weren't closely monitoring the plane's airspeed, which began to decrease to dangerously slow levels. Thus the captain was startled when a safety system called a "stick shaker" automatically went on, violently rattling the control yoke. Instead of pointing the plane downward to pick up speed, the captain pulled back on the yoke to increase altitude. That slowed the plane even more, eventually leading to an aerodynamic stall. The plane fell from the sky and landed on a house. 
 
 The board concluded that the monitoring errors by the flight crew demonstrated the need for more specific training on active monitoring skills. 
 
 The U.S. and other countries are transitioning to satellite-based air traffic systems and reducing their reliance on radar. Among the advantages of satellite-based navigation is that planes can fly more direct routes, reducing flying time. But the precision of automation is needed to allow planes to safely fly closer together and to increase takeoffs and landing in order to reduce congestion and meet growing demands for air travel. 
 
 As automation increases, pilots have fewer opportunities to use manual flying skills. Industry studies and committees have found that pilots who don't get to use their manual flying skills may not be prepared to handle unexpected events. Two of the nine airlines visited by investigators actively discouraged pilots from manual flying under normal conditions. 
 
 "The opportunities air carrier pilots have during live operations to maintain proficiency in manual flight are limited and likely to diminish," the report said. "While the FAA has taken steps to emphasize the importance of pilots' manual flying and monitoring skills, the agency can and should do more to ensure that carriers are sufficiently training their pilots on these skills." 
 
 Clay Foushee, the FAA's director of audits and evaluations, said in comments submitted to the inspector general that the FAA is concerned about "an overreliance on automation and the importance of training pilots to handle unexpected events and manually fly an aircraft." 
 
 He said the FAA agrees with a recommendation about developing standards to determine whether pilots have enough opportunities to practice manual flying skills. 
 
 The FAA hopes to provide guidance to airlines on pilot monitoring by Jan. 31, 2017, he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Joan Lowy at twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joan-lowy ||||| Asiana crew 'over-relied' on automated systems, NTSB report finds Crew misunderstood systems, NTSB finds 
 
 Debris from the July 2013 crash lies on the runway. The pilots were too dependent on automated systems they didn't understand, the report found. Debris from the July 2013 crash lies on the runway. The pilots were too dependent on automated systems they didn't understand, the report found. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Asiana crew 'over-relied' on automated systems, NTSB report finds 1 / 3 Back to Gallery 
 
 (06-25) 16:26 PDT WASHINGTON -- The crew of the Asiana Airlines plane that crashed last year at San Francisco International Airport relied too much on automated flight controls they didn't fully understand and mismanaged the landing as it went wrong, a federal safety panel concluded Tuesday. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board also found that the three-member crew flying the Boeing 777 was fatigued at the end of a cross-Pacific trip from South Korea and distracted by cockpit duties as the plane made its final approach July 6 - both of which probably contributed to their failure to notice that the jet was descending too quickly and losing speed. 
 
 Based on its findings, the safety board recommended that Boeing create better training manuals and procedures for using its automatic throttle controls. It also urged Asiana to improve its training methods and give more manual flight instruction to its pilots so they will be better able to handle any confusion about automation. 
 
 Crew 'mismanagement' 
 
 A majority of the board, however, pinned the crash squarely on pilot "mismanagement," describing as many as 30 errors that cascaded from minor and correctable 14 miles out of San Francisco to catastrophic and irreversible moments before the crash. 
 
 The three pilots on board "had multiple opportunities to recover if it wasn't going well" but failed to do so, said agency investigator Roger Cox. The plane's instrument panel puts "plenty of cues in front of you telling what you have done, but you have to look at them," he said. 
 
 Investigators said the pilots "lacked critical manual flying skills." 
 
 SFO's worst accident 
 
 Three passengers died and nearly 200 were injured when Asiana Flight 214 hit a seawall short of the runway, broke apart and caught fire, in the worst accident ever at SFO. One passenger, a 16-year-old girl from China, was run over by two San Francisco fire rigs in the confusion of the emergency response. 
 
 Much of the safety board's attention focused on whether the South Korean crew members adequately understood systems that they believed would automatically prevent the plane from losing too much speed. Christopher Hart, the board's acting chairman, said the crew "over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand." 
 
 The board's investigation team said the crew's key error was a lack of knowledge about how to use the auto-throttle, which is meant to maintain a safe speed. 
 
 The flying pilot, who had eight years of experience with Asiana but was a novice on the Boeing 777, had disengaged the autopilot when the plane climbed too high, putting the auto-throttle into a hold mode. He expected the auto-throttle to "wake up" if the plane's airspeed slowed too much, investigators found. 
 
 However, because he had also turned off the autopilot, the auto-throttle was stuck in idle - a functional interaction of the controls that he did not know about. 
 
 As a result, the plane's speed fell to 118 mph when it hit the seawall, well below the target speed of 157 mph for a landing. 
 
 The pilot, Lee Kang-guk, 45, told investigators he was "astonished" upon learning that the auto-throttle didn't work as he expected. 
 
 Investigators said the throttle mode was displayed on the instrument panel and that the pilots all failed to "call out" their actions to alert each other as to what each was doing. 
 
 Defending crew 
 
 While some safety board members sharply criticized the pilots, board member Robert Sumwalt, a former pilot, forcefully defended the crew. He said Asiana's training for using the automated throttle system was insufficient - and that there was misunderstanding even among some U.S. trainers about the system on the Boeing 777. 
 
 "The errors of the pilots were not because of any incompetence," Sumwalt said. "They were because of an expectation that the autopilot auto-throttle system would do something the airplane was not designed to do." 
 
 Boeing took issue Tuesday with the board's recommendation that it make the interface between the plane's automated systems and pilots more intuitive. In a statement, the company said it "respectfully disagrees" with the finding that the 777's auto-flight system contributed to the accident, saying the evidence showed that "all of the airplane's systems performed as designed." 
 
 Tired pilots? 
 
 Asiana Airlines issued a statement saying the safety board "properly recognized the multiple factors that contributed to this accident." 
 
 One of the factors, the safety board found, was fatigue on the part of pilots landing the plane at what would have been nighttime in Seoul after a 10 1/2-hour flight. But investigators did not explain how the Asiana pilots' fatigue differed from that of any other international flight crew, and some experts dismissed the finding. 
 
 "That's an absurdity," said aviation consultant Barry Schiff of Los Angeles. "Every pilot is off his time zone when he goes across the ocean. We've had to put up that since the beginning of flight. 
 
 "The bottom line is the pilots failed to monitor and maintain proper flying speed, which is about as fundamental as it gets," Schiff said. "Whether the auto-throttle system functioned as it should have is irrelevant." 
 
 This story has been corrected since it appeared in print editions.
– Where's Ted Striker when you need him? Probably not at the helm of a commercial flight, according to a new Department of Transportation report. It finds that automation has driven manual flying mostly out of the cockpit, leading to concerns that pilots may not be getting enough training to take the controls in emergencies, Gizmodo reports. "The agency is missing important opportunities to ensure that pilots maintain skills needed to safely fly and recover in the event of a failure with flight deck automation or an unexpected event," the report reads, per Reuters. Pilots usually fly planes manually during takeoffs and landings, but the aircraft is then placed into autopilot for about 90% of the flight, the news agency adds. While these technological advances have improved safety in many areas, the report warns that pilots aren't getting sufficient training to monitor the automated systems and that they're not keeping their manual skills sharp. Investigators visited nine airlines and found two of them discouraged pilots from taking over the plane during normal flying conditions, reports AP. Two recent high-profile accidents blamed on inadequately trained crews—Asiana Airlines Flight 777, which crashed in San Francisco and killed three, and Colgan Air Flight 3407, which crashed near Buffalo in 2009, killing all 49 on board and one person on the ground—have heightened the conversation. The DoT's no-brainer recommendation: have the FAA make sure pilots receive sufficient training and then check up to make sure they retain what they've learned.