Officials still unsure which fire truck killed Asiana survivor
Source: Agencies |
July 24, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman has said that the agency is still investigating which rig ran over and killed a 16-year-old Asiana Airlines crash survivor.
Fire spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge also said that infrared equipment in trucks wouldn't have had any bearing on the situation.
This followed claims in the San Francisco Chronicle that a two-axle truck believed to have run over Ye Mengyuan was not equipped with infrared imaging technology now required by federal law.
Talmadge said on Monday that officials are still probing which vehicle was responsible for the Chinese girl's death after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed on July 6.
"Our investigation is not complete," she said. "I cannot tell you what vehicle was involved."
The first trucks to respond were foam trucks, but it is unlikely Ye was killed during that initial response, Talmadge said.
"The girl was under a foam blanket" when she was struck, Talmadge said, "and so I don't believe the incident occurred while crews were first responding."
Additionally, Talmadge said, all four foam-spraying rigs at San Francisco International Airport have infrared systems to identify hot spots on planes that need to be cooled down, and all four were working.
The Boeing 777 crash-landed after approaching the runway too low and too slow.
The landing gear and then the tail broke off as the plane hit the airport seawall, before came to a stop.
Two other Chinese girls also died, one who was thrown out the back of the plane and a second who died days later from her injuries.
San Francisco's airport fire divisions are equipped with four Aircraft Rescue Firefighting Vehicles - the massive foam throwers - as well as two engines, one truck, two paramedic units, four watercraft and a command unit.
Talmadge said there has been confusion about the difference between what's known as Driver's Enhanced Vision systems, or DEV, which describes many different systems aimed at helping fire truck drivers, and Forward Looking InfraRed, which is one particular type of DEV.
The airport is still in the process of installing two other types of DEV systems, she said. One feeds a library of aircraft models and their layouts to computers in fire engines, so that when they pull up to an aircraft they have its layout.
The second is a mapping system that would allow rescuers obscured by fog or smoke to find their way around the runway.
Talmadge said neither of those systems would have made a difference in the Asiana Airlines accident because it was a clear day, rescue workers could see the aircraft, and they knew already where the fire was.
The heat-sensing equipment was developed to detect hot spots through the skins of planes that are burning or about to burn, said David Williams, who teaches aviation and occupational safety at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Daytona Beach, Florida.
This helps firefighters use a piercing nozzle to get water into a plane without risking lives.
Fire spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge also said that infrared equipment in trucks wouldn't have had any bearing on the situation.
This followed claims in the San Francisco Chronicle that a two-axle truck believed to have run over Ye Mengyuan was not equipped with infrared imaging technology now required by federal law.
Talmadge said on Monday that officials are still probing which vehicle was responsible for the Chinese girl's death after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed on July 6.
"Our investigation is not complete," she said. "I cannot tell you what vehicle was involved."
The first trucks to respond were foam trucks, but it is unlikely Ye was killed during that initial response, Talmadge said.
"The girl was under a foam blanket" when she was struck, Talmadge said, "and so I don't believe the incident occurred while crews were first responding."
Additionally, Talmadge said, all four foam-spraying rigs at San Francisco International Airport have infrared systems to identify hot spots on planes that need to be cooled down, and all four were working.
The Boeing 777 crash-landed after approaching the runway too low and too slow.
The landing gear and then the tail broke off as the plane hit the airport seawall, before came to a stop.
Two other Chinese girls also died, one who was thrown out the back of the plane and a second who died days later from her injuries.
San Francisco's airport fire divisions are equipped with four Aircraft Rescue Firefighting Vehicles - the massive foam throwers - as well as two engines, one truck, two paramedic units, four watercraft and a command unit.
Talmadge said there has been confusion about the difference between what's known as Driver's Enhanced Vision systems, or DEV, which describes many different systems aimed at helping fire truck drivers, and Forward Looking InfraRed, which is one particular type of DEV.
The airport is still in the process of installing two other types of DEV systems, she said. One feeds a library of aircraft models and their layouts to computers in fire engines, so that when they pull up to an aircraft they have its layout.
The second is a mapping system that would allow rescuers obscured by fog or smoke to find their way around the runway.
Talmadge said neither of those systems would have made a difference in the Asiana Airlines accident because it was a clear day, rescue workers could see the aircraft, and they knew already where the fire was.
The heat-sensing equipment was developed to detect hot spots through the skins of planes that are burning or about to burn, said David Williams, who teaches aviation and occupational safety at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Daytona Beach, Florida.
This helps firefighters use a piercing nozzle to get water into a plane without risking lives.
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