An accounting of the Asiana crash

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This was sent to me and it is a passenger's version and unverified as to what happened during and after the crash...Interesting to read……...

Below is an e-mail from the father of one of the passengers who was aboard the Asiana flight that crashed yesterday at San Francisco (the father is a friend of a friend).  It's an unvarnished recount through the eyes of one of the lucky ones who emerged virtually unscathed.  His observations about the post-crash response do raise concerns about the level of coordination and preparedness at that major airport.

We finally got to talk directly with (son) Brian this morning about noon.  He got home about 10:30 last night after a terrifying and frustrating day.  He is scraped up a little and banged up but had no injuries that required treatment.  The following account is as I can remember from what he told us.
Brian and part of his group was in row 16 some more in row 18 and the remainder in row 20.  They had had a great week in South Korea and the flight had been uneventful.    As they neared the approach Brian felt like they were too high as the plane descended sharply and then he heard the engines spool up as if the pilot realized that he had descended too much.  Brian said the nose pitched up but the plane did not raise much.  He said that there was a very loud impact as the tail hit and then a much larger impact as the nose slammed down.  He then said the plane slewed to the left and rose up to about 45 degrees with the right wing high because he said he was looking down at the girl across the aisle from him.

The plane slammed down again and spun further down the runway and ended up in the dirt several hundred yards from the seawall that they had hit.  Brian and the people near him were trying to go forward to exit on the left but there was a problem with that door (it may be the door that they are now reporting that had the slide deploy inside the cabin) so they turned around so they could go out the back through the hole that was the back of the aircraft that had been sheared off.  They were apparently near the end of a long line and were beginning to see smoke and dust.  He looked back and saw that they were getting the front door open and the slide deployed so they turned around and went back and went out the slide in front of the wing.  He said he felt badly that he had run into two elderly ladies that were having trouble exiting the slide but he helped them up.  He and the part of the group that was with him ran around to the back of the plane where the rest of the group had jumped to the ground through the hole.  They moved away from the aircraft and were watching the fire crews begin to deploy and foam down the aircraft which was burning.

One of his friends (Elliot Stone) was looking back up the runway and saw a flight attendant several hundred yards away waving at them and trying to walk.  They tried  to get the attention of the firefighters and police (no paramedics on scene) to no avail.  Brian, Elliot and two others from their group ran back toward the attendant they could see.  Elliot stayed with that attendant and Brian went on down the runway.  He came upon a young woman who was obviously dying (unconscious but moving a little) and was going to stay with her but saw another woman who was a flight attendant nearby who was moving and bleeding.  He went to her and saw she was very seriously hurt with facial, head and spinal injuries.  He held her hand and talked with her and wanted to get a blanket for her but she begged him to stay with her which he did.  The other two also found injured flight attendants and tried to help them.  They were waiving and trying to get the attention of the police or fire personnel to divert some of the arriving EMS resources to them.  An airport staff person arrived in a truck and also tried to get help for them.  According to Elliot on CNN it was 20 to 30 minutes before they got any help.  It may not have been that long in real time but in their minds it was clearly way way after the triage had been set up back by the plane and others with lesser injuries were being treated and transported.

They finally did get the attention of two ambulances and they arrived and according to Brian were very leisurely in getting their gear out and arranged before even approaching the victims.  Brian said one of the EMS staff was so obese he had a hard time getting out of the ambulance.   The injured were put on backboards, neck braces etc. and loaded up.  A policeman had arrived and tried to order Brian and his crew back to the plane because this was a crime scene.  Brian and co. refused saying they would only after the injured women were transported.  The ambulances left and again the policeman ordered them back to the aircraft.  They were going to comply until Brian looked over and saw that they had left one of the women strapped to a backboard behind.   Someone  had put a cloth over her eyes to shield her from the sun but I guess the other crew assumed that she had expired and left her there.   She was not dead and was still moving.  Brian and his friends just completely lost it with the cop and refused to leave until another ambulance arrived to collect her.   Brian and Elliot and friends are EXTREMELY angry over the EMS response.   They then began walking back toward the airplane and Brian found   one of his shoes, a book and a shirt from his suitcase but couldn’t see his suitcase or other stuff from it including his medicine.

The story goes on and on from there with directions and counter directions and counter counter directions over the next 8 hours.    After conflicting direction from the police, FAA, Homeland Security, FBI etc. Elliot had had enough and called CNN and began giving interviews which you may have heard on the air which are not at all flattering of the response to the crash.  The problem is that since Elliot’s phone battery was dead, he borrowed Brian’s phone so now Brian is getting all these calls for follow-up interviews and calls from other news and television agencies because CNN apparently shared the call back number which went to Brian’s phone.

They were finally released and got home about 10:30.  He was not able to sleep much (neither did we) and still sounds very angry today.  I am sure that some of that is a reaction to  the things he experienced and saw yesterday and some just may be exhaustion and shot nerves.   I told Brian he really needs to share what they went through (with the EMS response) with the NTSB and the San Francisco FD.  I don’t believe the LAFD would ever allow one of their personnel to be so obese that they could not effectively perform their duties.

We thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and expressions of concern.

D & S