FAA urges foreign airlines to use GPS at San Francisco International Airport

SAN FRANCISCO The Federal Aviation Administration is advising all foreign airlines to use a GPS system instead of visual approaches when landing at San Francisco International Airport in the wake of the deadly Asiana Airlines crash.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the FAA issued a recommendation Sunday that the airlines use the GPS system when landing on main runways instead of relying on just their eyes and cockpit instruments.

The FAA decided to recommend the GPS-based instrument system "out of an abundance of caution," the agency said Sunday in a prepared statement.

Pilots on Asiana Airlines Flight 214 had been cleared to make a visual approach when the plane crash-landed on a runway at the San Francisco airport July 6. Three girls died, and 180 people were injured.

The FAA says that since then, pilots for Asiana and other foreign carriers have had more aborted landings than usual while trying to make visual approaches. The agency didn't provide exact numbers.

Earlier this month, officials said the four South Korean pilots of the Asiana plane that crash-landed were being treated for psychological trauma and injuries caused by the incident.

The pilots underwent questioning by a U.S. and South Korean joint investigation team while in the U.S. South Korean officials planned to conduct a separate interview with them.