The United States Department of Transportation penalized Asiana Airlines $500,000 for reportedly not helping passengers and their families, and giving additional assistance, mandatory under federal guidelines, following a 2013 crash in San Francisco The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
Passengers families were reportedly notified a maximum five days after the plane went down.
"In the very rare event of a crash, airlines have a responsibility to provide their full support to help passengers and their families by following all the elements of their family assistance plans," Anthony Foxx, secretary at the department said in a statement The Times reported. "The last thing families and passengers should have to worry about at such a stressful time is how to get information from their carrier."
Asiana Airlines also reportedly did not significantly promote a number family members could call other than its normal reservation number, free of charge.
"The reservations line did not include a separate menu option for calls related to the crash and callers were required to navigate through cumbersome automated menus before being connected to an Asiana employee," the Department of Transportation said in a statement The Times reported.
Seventy-five percent of the passengers were reportedly informed about the crash two days after it happened. Many others were notified over five days after.
There were also reportedly not ample resources available for Asiana Airlines to institute a family assistance plan since appropriate employees of the airline did not arrive in San Francisco until two days after the unforeseen event The Times reported. The plan was fulfilled, and resources reportedly given five days after.
The July 6 crash took the lives of three people, and injured over 180 of the 307 passengers including flight staff after the Boeing 777 aircraft hit a sea wall and plunged into a runway The Times reported.
An investigation is continuing into the crash.
