By Paul Elias
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — A video has surfaced showing the fiery 2013 crash of a commercial airliner on approach at San Francisco International Airport and a rescue response to the incident that killed three passengers and injured 200 other people.
Investigators previously released a brief portion of the clip in 2013 showing the crash and its aftermath.
The longer version was posted on YouTube by an unidentified viewer and verified Wednesday by airport officials. It shows hundreds of passengers walking near the crash as emergency trucks arrive.
The 47-minute video clip was shot from the airport control tower and shows Asiana Airlines flight 214 coming in for a landing over San Francisco Bay before clipping a seawall at the beginning of the runway.
It shows smoke and dust rising from the craft as it spins down the runway then zooms in as passengers slide down emergency chutes while the plane begins to burn.
The National Transportation Safety Board released part of the footage five months after the July 6, 2013, crash.
Hundreds of passengers, some pulling luggage, can be seen milling about on the tarmac as emergency trucks pull up and several firefighters and police scurry up the chutes into the burning plane to rescue five trapped and injured passengers.
The NTSB said only five of the plane’s 12 flight attendants were able to help with the evacuation after the crash.
Two of the flight attendants riding in the tail of the plane were seriously hurt when their section was severed from the craft on impact.
One of the three passengers died when she was accidentally run over by a firefighter responding in a truck.
The 16-year girl was ejected from the plane and covered by flame-retardant foam when she was hit by the fire truck. The two other teen girls killed in the accident appeared to not have been wearing their seatbelts at the time of the accident, the NTSB concluded.
The video shows the crew taking about 90 seconds to deploy emergency chutes and order evacuation from the plane once it comes to a stop.
The NTSB said the delay was due to the pilot initially telling flight attendants not to deploy the chutes “as well as disorientation and confusion.”
The NTSB said the pilot wanted to first consult with the control tower before opening the doors to make sure it was safe to exit. Flight attendants initially told passengers to stay seated.
Flight attendants then ordered the plane evacuated when one noticed fire. The NTSB said the crew followed proper procedures, including the initial delay waiting for guidance from outside the plane.
“It’s a little long,” Al Diehl, a retired NTSB investigator, said Wednesday. “But the pilot may not have known he was off the runway. This guy had gone through a lot and everybody was a little bit dazed.”
The NTSB said the San Francisco Fire Department needed to institute policies and training on responding to prone victims outside damaged airplanes. But the agency said the fire department’s response was appropriate.
The video was first posted to Youtube.com on June 28 by an unidentified viewer. San Francisco airport spokesman Charles Shuler said the video is authentic and that airport authorities have distributed it widely throughout the aviation industry since the investigation was completed.
“The footage illustrates the rapid response of airport and first responders, the quick knockdown of initial and secondary fires, and the integration of mutual aid support,” Shuler said.
“It sounds like, for the most part, things went very well,” Diehl added. “It’s amazing only three people died.”
The NTSB concluded that the pilots were at fault for the crash.