The fire truck that ran over and killed a Chinese girl after an Asiana Airlines jet crash-landed on July 6 was not equipped with heat-sensing equipment, U.S. media reported Monday.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the vehicle that caused the death of 16-year-old Ye Mengyuan did not have forward-looking infrared technology. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration requires all aircraft rescue trucks to install the equipment.

A former FAA safety expert Ben Castellano told the newspaper the accident could have possibly been averted by the technology, which measures heat from objects on the ground and creates a map of upcoming obstacles for drivers to navigate around.

“Had the person been alive ― the foam has a cooling action, but the body would still have given off some ambient heat that could have been visible,” Castellano, former acting manager of airport safety for the FAA, was quoted as saying.

San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, however, said she was not sure whether the equipment could have stopped the accident from happening. Assistant Deputy Fire Chief Dale Carnes also said that it would be a “complete conjecture” to say that the system would have prevented Ye’s death. On Friday, the San Mateo county coroner confirmed that Ye had been alive after the aircraft had gone down, killing two others and leaving 180 people injured.

In the chaotic aftermath of the accident, the high school student from China was covered with fire retardant foam sprayed by the rescue workers, which made her virtually invisible to the fire engine that fatally injured her.

Two other girls died in the accident: Ye’s close friend Wang Linjia was killed in the crash, and 15-year-old Liu Yipeng died at a hospital on July 12 after sustaining severe injuries.

By Yoon Min-sik and news reports
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)