Asiana fined $500,000 for slow crash aid

In the first penalty of its kind, U.S. regulators fined South Korean-based Asiana Airlines $500,000 on Tuesday for failing to assist the families of passengers on a flight that crashed in San Francisco in July in which three people were killed and more than 180 injured.

The Boeing 777, en route from Seoul, hit a seawall short of the runway at San Francisco airport, broke apart, and caught on fire.

"Asiana's response to the crash of flight 214 indicates that the carrier failed to commit sufficient resources to carry out its family assistance plan," the Transportation Department said in a statement.

Federal law requires that airlines provide certain services to passengers and their families in the event of a crash. The DOT said it was the first time it issued a fine under that law.

In a statement e-mailed to the Associated Press, Asiana spokeswoman Hyomin Lee said the airline "provided extensive support to the passengers and their families following the accident and will continue to do so."

Asiana said that its response immediately after the crash was slowed because it occurred on a holiday weekend when staffing was short.

For almost a day after the July 6 crash, Asiana failed to publicize widely a telephone number where family members could get information, the department said.

In addition, Asiana took two full days to contact the families of just three-quarters of the passengers, the DOT said, adding that the families of several passengers were not contacted until five days after the crash.

Asiana also took two days to send a sufficient number of trained personnel to San Francisco and initially lacked an adequate number of staff able to communicate in the languages spoken by the flight's passengers, the department said.

Asiana said it was not alone among foreign airlines with "few trained employees to attend to post-accident responsibilities." It said it assigned a special representative to each passenger and family within a few days of the crash; flew in family members from overseas, and provided professional crisis counseling through the Red Cross.

Not until five days after the crash did Asiana have the resources necessary to carry out all of its responsibilities under federal law, U.S. officials said.

The crash was the first fatal commercial aircraft accident in the United States since February 2009.

The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the accident.