Never-before-seen footage showing the chaotic rescue mission moments after the Asiana Airlines plane crash has provided a disturbing insight into the movements and actions of authorities on the ground.
The footage, obtained by CBS News, reveals how 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan was run over twice (not in this released version); 15 minutes after the driver of a fire truck was initially warned of her body on the ground.
She was then run over by another fire truck minutes later.
“They say everybody is off,” a firefighter is heard exclaiming. “Just don’t go in there. Anybody’s in there right now, they’re dead.”
The video was captured from the fire truck in question and a camera attached to a firefighter’s helmet.
While authorities made it clear Meng Yuan had been run over by a fire truck at the announcement of her death, there was some initial confusion over whether she had already passed away at the time of the incident. There were also claims she may have been overlooked due to the amount of foam sprayed around the plane. Footage shows Meng Yuan was partially covered.
“When the fire truck repositioned itself to continue battling flames from the fuselage, the victim passenger was found in the tire track of the fire truck,” police spokesman Albie Esparza said at the time.
But the 50 minutes of footage reveals multiple emergency workers pointing to the victim, identified as Meng Yuan, on the ground.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop,” a firefighter can clearly be heard warning the driver of the fire truck. “There’s a body right there, right in front of you.”
Meanwhile in another grab, the camera on “Rescue Truck 10” shows a firefighter diverting the truck around Meng Yuan’s body.
A coroner has revealed it is believed she was alive but at the time a lieutenant told investigators she made a snap three-second visual assessment and came to the conclusion that she was dead.
“That’s our first casualty,” she thought, without checking her vital signs.
Asiana Flight 214 collided with a rocky seawall just short of its intended airport runway and skidded on its belly in San Francisco in July last year.
Three teenagers, including Meng Yuan, were killed and dozens of others injured although most suffered minor injuries. Investigators have said the plane came in too low and slow. 304 passengers survived.
Meng Yuan’s parents are suing the city of San Francisco, claiming mismanagement, lack of training and reckless behavior caused the death of their daughter.
“What the family wants is accountability,” said the family’s attorney, Justin Green. “They want to know why weren’t the firefighters trained, why weren’t the supervisors certified and why hasn’t the fire department come clean about what happened?”
The San Francisco Fire Department is yet to comment on the most recent revelations but Chief Joanne-Hayes told KPIX last month: “Our members that day had difficult decisions to make. One was visualising someone that appeared to be dead versus going onto the burning plane with reports of people that still needed to be rescued.”
The pilot of the Boeing 777 was on his first flight in the jet, and investigators believe pilot error was to blame for the crash.
This story originally appeared on news.com.au