Revealed: Moment Asiana crash firefighters ignored victim, 16, as she lay ALIVE on ground... minutes before they fatally ran her over
Video from a camera mounted on a San Francisco firetruck shows at least two emergency workers alerting trucks to go around Chinese student Ye Meng Yuan as she lay on the ground by the stricken aircraft - but the rushing first responders believe she is dead and do not check her for vital signs.
Indeed, one lieutenant told crash investigators that all she did was make 'a three second' visual assessment of Ye and automatically assumed, 'That's our first casualty', without putting a finger to her pulse or to see if she was still breathing.
To compound the tragedy, less than 15 minutes after the first firetruck driver had seen Ye, they drove over the teen, followed just moments later by another truck which also rode over the student's body.
Not covered in foam: Firefighters told investigators they assumed Ye Meng Yuan, 16, (seen on the floor) was dead and instead hurried on toward the damaged aircraft
The official line from the San Francisco Fire Department is that the girl was accidentally struck by trucks racing to battle the fiery wreck of the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 because she was hidden by foam sprayed over the plane.
However, the newly released footage shows that some emergency workers were aware there was a body in the vicinity - including the driver of the truck which ran over her first.
Ye was one of three people to die as the plane misjudged its landing at San Francisco on July 6 and struck its tail section on a sea wall as it came into land - 304 people survived.
The impact ripped off the back of the plane, tossed out three flight attendants and their seats, and scattered pieces of the jet across the runway as it spun and skidded to a stop.
Highlighted: A camera aboard 'Rescue Truck 10' shows a firefighter directing the truck around Ye on the ground - 15 minutes later he would run her over
Ye was one of three Chinese teens who died; one died during the crash, and another later in the hospital.
Her parents have filed a claim against the city of San Francisco, saying rescuers were reckless and poorly trained.
In their claim, attorneys at the Los Angeles law firm Kreindler and Kreindler representing Yuan's parents name 37 specific airport, fire and police department employees, saying they and others 'breached their duty of care.' They do not specify damages.
In the video footage obtained by CBS News and given to them by the family of Ye, a firefighter can be clearly be heard saying, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, stop, stop,' to the driver of one of the first truck's to respond to the crash scene,
'There's a body right there, right in front of you,' the firefighter adds.
Fire emergency: Firefighters battle the blazing wreck of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 which had come to a shuddering and fiery halt on the runway at San Francisco airport's tarmac on July 6
Firetrucks: Foam is sprayed at the burning wreck of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 as it sits on the tarmac of San Francisco airport in July
Investigators all agree that at the time of this diversion, Ye was still alive, but no one checks to see if she is.
Firefighters told investigators they assumed the girl was dead and instead hurried on toward the damaged aircraft. Newly released footage shows workers walking past her body without stopping.
However, an autopsy revealed Yuan was alive before two fire vehicles hit her.
In an obituary, Yuan was described as a champion athlete who excelled at literature, playing piano, singing and public speaking. Her given name means 'wish come true' in Chinese.
It is still unknown how Yuan got out of the plane, but the claim says she was possibly taken out by rescuers.
Killed: Ye Meng Yuan, left, 16, was hit by at least oner fire truck after the Asiana plane crash. She died along with her schoolfriend Wang Linjia, right
Crash landing: An aerial view of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 plane is seen after it crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport in California in July
Best of friend: Ye Meng Yuan and Yuan Linjia, both 16, died when the Boeing 777 passenger jet slammed into a seawall while attempting to land
Interviews for an ongoing National Traffic Safety Board found Yuan was covered with foam and struck twice — once by a fire rig spraying foam whose driver had seen and driven around her earlier in the chaos, and again 11 minutes later by a second truck that was turning around to fetch water.
Her death has prompted new training for firefighters who work at San Francisco International Airport, including 40 to 80 hours of advanced instruction at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
'There are many lessons to be learned here,' Assistant Deputy Chief Dale Carnes, who oversees the San Francisco Fire Department's airport division, said during a NTSB hearing in December. 'We are developing strategies to lessen the potential for firefighting vehicles impacting accident victims.'
The driver of the first of two San Francisco Fire Department rigs that struck the girl said he was alerted less than 15 minutes earlier to avoid the her as she lay on the ground.
Confusion: Tapes of 911 emergency calls reveal the panic and confusion that engulfed the aftermath of the crash
Lawsuit: The family of a teenage girl who was struck and killed by emergency vehicles in the aftermath of an Asiana Airlines plane crash filed a civil claim against the city of San Francisco, alleging gross negligence
The footage, taken by a dashboard camera aboard the rig and reviewed on Thursday by The San Francisco Chronicle, sheds new light on the circumstances surrounding the death of Ye Meng Yuan.
Several firefighters who responded to the July 6 crash have told investigators they believed Ye was dead and that they had concentrated on rescuing passengers and crew members who were still aboard the burning Boeing 777.
No one has reported checking her vital signs, however.
The rig camera's footage shows that although the plane had crashed just a few minutes earlier, passengers were gone from the area where Ye lay crumpled, and at one point a firefighter walked past her without looking down.
It also shows that the first rig that ran over Ye sprayed much of the flame-retardant foam that came to obscure her from firefighter drivers.
Chaos: Three flight attendants and one Chinese student, who died in the accident, were ejected from the back of the plane after the tail broke off
Charred: Asiana Flight 214 burst into flames after crash landing July 6 at San Francisco International Airport
When the rig initially pulled up to the plane, the girl was lying on bare ground, the footage shows.
The dashboard camera's footage showed firefighter Roger Phillips waving his arms to direct the driver of a fire truck to travel around the girl.
The NTSB were later told that the firefighter assumed the girl was dead.
The footage shows no firefighter attempting to move Ye or mark her with a casualty flag, as first responders commonly do at disaster scenes.
Aftermath: 911 calls have revealed passengers' terror after Flight 214 crashed in San Francisco and how they waited for more than half an hour for ambulance to arrive at the scene
Human error: Meanwhile, investigators have found no evidence of mechanical problems with Asiana Flight 214, putting the focus of the safety probe into the crash landing at the San Francisco airport squarely on the pilots
'What the family wants is accountability,' he said to CBS News.
'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 told us they can't comment on pending litigation. Last month Chief Mary Hayes-White told our San Francisco station KPIX this:
'Our members that day had difficult decisions to make. One was visualizing someone that appeared to be dead versus going onto the burning plane with reports of people that still needed to be rescued.'
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