New evidence caught on tape during the Asiana Flight 214 crash-landing in San Francisco on July 6 raises questions about the emergency response to the situation. The video challenges earlier claims that 16-year-old passenger, Ye Meng Yuan was accidentally run over by two fire trucks because she was hidden in foam.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Video shows that multiple emergency responders were aware of Ye’s body on the ground at the crash scene.
- Responders failed to check her vital signs upon arrival.
- Further footage shows that she was run over by the emergency vehicle.
- Coroner reports that Ye survived the plane crash and her final cause of death was blunt trauma from the motor vehicle.
Video footage from a firefighters helmet camera shows that responders were aware of her body on the ground outside the plane, but rescue vehicles proceeded to drive over her body. The coroner reports that Ye was flung from the plane and remained alive and that the cause of death was “multiple blunt injuries consistent with being run over by a motor vehicle.”
The initial footage shows a firefighter trying to stop an emergency vehicle racing toward the scene.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop, stop, stop! There’s a body … there’s a body right there. Right in front of you,” the firefighter told the driver.
A following video from the ground showed a second firefighter directing the truck around the victim and several firefighters passing by Ye on the ground. None stopped to check her vitals.
The footage then shows emergency vehicles driving over the body in an attempt to get closer to the plane.
According to Anthony Tarricone, attorney for Yuan’s family, at least five firefighters knew Ye was on the ground before she was covered in foam, but nobody examined her or moved her out of harm’s way.
After the images became public, San Francisco’s fire chief, Joanne Hayes-White, explicitly banned firefighters from using helmet-mounted video, telling the San Francisco Chronicle she was concerned about the privacy of victims and firefighters.
The department subsequently said it was reviewing that policy.
Ye was on her way back to an American summer camp from her home in China. Ye’s parents were devastated by her death and filed a gross negligence claim against the city and county of San Francisco.
Two other people died during the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board said the jet descended in altitude faster than it should have.
