911 calls from Asiana crash reveal panic on runway

Emergency calls made after the Asiana Airlines crash reveal witnesses's fear that police, fire and ambulance crews didn't respond fast enough.

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Emergency calls made after the Asiana Airlines crash last week, reveal that witnesses were worried police, fire and ambulance crews didn't respond fast enough.

The California Highway Patrol has released 11 minutes of 911 call audio tapes, the first call coming in at 11:29 am, within two minutes of the Boeing 777 crash-landing short of the runway at San Francisco International Airport.

"There are no ambulances here—we've been on the ground 20 minutes," a female passenger said in one call.

"There are people laying on the tarmac with critical injuries, head injuries. We're almost losing a woman here—we're trying to keep her alive."

Another female caller told the dispatcher: "There's not enough medics out here."

The caller was with an injured woman who she described as being 24 or 25 years old.

"She is severely burned, she will probably die soon if we don't get help," she said.

"Is there any way we can assist her?"

Despite the calls, Mindy Talmadge of the San Francisco Fire Department,said airport-based ambulances were on the scene "immediately, within a couple of minutes."

Ms Talmage said concerns about a lack of emergency care could be explained by the callers' distance from the triage site.

"You start triage with the first patient you come into contact with," she said.

"It makes sense that the people who were ejected from the plane who were farther away from the activity would most likely be people you would get to a little later in the incident."


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2 min read

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Source: CNN



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