Asiana crash: video shows Ye Mengyuan before fire truck ran her over

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/asiana-crash-video-ye-mengyuan

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Firefighters responding to an Asiana Airlines plane that crash-landed in San Francisco in July 2013 were warned about the presence of a teenage passenger who was later fatally struck by an emergency vehicle, new video footage of the aftermath shows.

Ye Mengyuan, a 16-year-old passenger from China, survived the initial impact of the 6 July crash only to be struck and killed by an emergency vehicle as she lay near the wreckage.

The newly released footage has reignited controversy over Ye's death, which a California prosecutor said was accidental and that the girl's body was hidden by foam on the runway when she was struck after the crash, which killed three people and injured more than 180.

One video, first released by CBS News late on Tuesday, shows a firefighter pointing to Ye, who appeared motionless in a patch of dry grass without no foam nearby. Another video shows a firefighter flagging down a fire truck headed toward the plane.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop, stop, stop!" the firefighter shouts before the driver stops and opens his door to talk. "There's a body right there, right in front of you," the firefighter says. About 15 minutes later Ye was run over, CBS reported.

Cameras mounted on the helmet and truck of first responders captured the footage. CBS reported that the videos were obtained from a source close to Ye's family.

The San Mateo district attorney Stephen Wagstaffe declined in October to file charges against the first responders, saying that the girl's body had been covered with firefighting foam when she was hit and that the crash aftermath was "dramatically chaotic".

This month Ye's family filed a wrongful death civil claim against the city of San Francisco, alleging gross negligence. The district attorney's office declined to comment on the case or the new videos.

According to the family's claim two San Francisco firefighters saw Ye lying on the ground and alerted a supervisor but they were instructed to move on and failed to mark her location.

Family attorney Justin Green told CBS that the family was seeking accountability. "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 also declined to comment, saying it would wait for the close of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation before commenting on the case.

"The NTSB investigation is still ongoing and we're being fully cooperative with that," spokesperson Mindy Talmadge said.

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