At 11:27 a.m. Saturday, that nickname became reality when a voice from the airport control tower crackled through Emmons’ radio: “Alert 3, Alert 3, plane crash, plane crash.”

“I knew from her voice that the event we were going to was real,” Emmons said Monday.

Within minutes, she and other firefighters were scrambling up the inflatable chutes of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, even as black smoke billowed out and passengers slid down to escape.

In the back of the plane – which had lost its tail after clipping a seawall short of the runway – they joined a city police officer wearing no protective gear and rescued four injured victims, including one who was trapped.

The account of the first responders emerged at a news conference in which firefighters described a chaotic, rapidly changing scene after the crash, which killed two girls and injured dozens of other people.

‘Surreal’ scene

“It seemed to be surreal, like it wasn’t happening,” said fire Lt. Dave Monteverdi.

Emmons said that as she drove across the tarmac toward the crash, she saw a huge column of smoke. “Adrenaline was flowing,” she said, “and I had to keep reminding my driver, if we don’t get there, we won’t be able to help anybody.”

The firefighters found the Boeing 777 on its belly, with jet fuel leaking from the left wing and passengers streaming down the chutes. Firefighters were hearing from the crew that some passengers were still trapped inside, and some crew members were unaccounted for.

Monteverdi climbed a chute from a left-side door, along with Emmons and firefighter-paramedic Mike Kirk. A hose line was fed to them, they said, and they knocked down flames in the fuselage.

Stuck in debris

Kirk soon radioed that he had found one flight attendant and four passengers still in the back of the plane, including an elderly man and a person who was stuck in debris.

There was less smoke in the back but more damage from the landing. “It was hectic,” Emmons said. “The back of the plane did not hold up as well as the front of the plane.”

One of two people put on backboards, Monteverdi said, was a woman who appeared to have fractured legs. One man was groaning, and the crew had little time to assess his injuries.

“We were running out of time,” Monteverdi said. “The smoke was getting thicker and thicker. We had no choice. We stood him up. Amazingly, he began shuffling his feet.”

Officer rushes in

The firefighters said they were shocked to see San Francisco police Officer Jim Cunningham inside the plane helping out, wearing only his uniform.

Cunningham said he had heard the call come through the radio and rushed to the scene just as the chutes were deployed, bringing with him an ambulance he had waved down on his way to the crash.

Outside the plane, he said, he and his partner, Officer Derrick Lee, threw knives up to the crew so they could cut passengers out of their seat belts as jet fuel “gushed out like a fire hose” near him.

“We kept trying to get the crew off, but they were really brave,” Cunningham said. “They wanted to stay with the plane.”

Cunningham cleared away luggage and other debris that was blocking a hole where the tail used to be. As he looked up into the plane through the opening, he said, “it didn’t look like they had enough people.” So he went in.

‘Didn’t think about it’

“I was just running back and forth trying to help people,” Cunningham said. “I didn’t think about it. I just knew people were trapped in there. I just thought, ‘I’m kind of a tough guy, I can hold my breath if there’s a lot of smoke.’ “

At one point, he said, he picked up an iPhone, flicked it on, saw a picture of a mother and daughter and thought, “Someone’s going to want this.” He pocketed the phone and turned it over to a person who could track the owner down.

Even after he left the plane, Cunningham was worried there had been a miscommunication. He had heard that more people were onboard than he had found.

“I wanted to go back in and look through the rubble,” he said. “I started crying because I was thinking I screwed up and somebody got killed.”

Ultimately, everyone the first responders found aboard the plane was helped to safety. “I feel very lucky and blessed we were able to get those people out,” Emmons said.

Vivian Ho and Demian Bulwa are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com, dbulwa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vivianho, @demianbulwa

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/How-rescuers-saved-SF-plane-crash-victims-4652751.php

It also comes with a deal involving some of The City’s most valuable public real estate, and the pact with race officials needs significant changes if San Francisco’s financial ship is going to stay on course, a budget analyst’s report released Thursday says.

The business arm of the race, the America’s Cup Event Authority, plans to finance waterfront pier improvements that the Port of San Francisco cannot afford. In return, race officials would receive ownership and long-term rent-free leases after the 2013 event for some of The City’s most desirable Bay-front property to build luxury condominiums, retail outlets and other developments yet to be determined.

Although the Port normally requires such deals to include a portion of future lease revenue to be funneled back into public coffers, that’s not currently part of the America’s Cup agreement. But the report conducted by budget and legislative analyst Harvey Rose recommends a 1 percent equivalent of all condominium sales be retained by the Port and that it also should receive a cut of real estate transfer fees.

Under the terms of the current deal, the authority would initially invest $55 million in pier improvements in exchange for a 66-year lease at Piers 30-32 and ownership of Seawall Lot 330, a property already approved for condos.

The authority could then opt to do additional pier work and get 66-year leases on piers 26, 28 and 29, which would trigger repayment from The City with an 11 percent interest rate. The report recommends that a cap be placed on the amount race officials can spend on improvements, or else The City could end up being roped into repayment for up to 91 years after the event.

The report suggests The City should nix Pier 29, at the foot of Telegraph Hill, from being transferred to race officials after the event. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has been pointing to the lucrative property as a problem spot in the deal.

“Pier 29 needs to come off the table,” Chiu said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll push to have it removed in the weeks ahead.”

Stephen Barclay, a board member of the authority and the group’s primary negotiator, has been talking tough in recent weeks, saying concessions have already been made to mitigate the financial stress on the Port. Barclay said on Tuesday he will “draw the line” with Pier 29, because it is essential to the authority seeing a return on the total $111 million it plans to spend.

“We face an urgent deadline to get construction under way, so any additional changes would detrimentally affect the balance of the bargain,” Barclay said recently in a statement.

The report also levies concern about potentially lax fundraising by the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, the nonprofit in charge of covering The City’s $52 million cost of putting on the race in September 2013.

If the committee raises its goal of $32 million by 2013 and The City can generate $22 million in hotel and sales taxes during the event, San Francisco will come out more than $2 million ahead, the report says. But if fundraising stagnates at its current $8 million level, The City’s taxpayers could be in the hole for nearly $22 million.

Local Democratic Party Chairman Aaron Peskin said the long-term fiscal impact of the race shouldn’t be taken lightly, and upcoming Board of Supervisors hearings on the matter should include discussions about how to expose The City to less risk.

“As currently structured, this transaction is still taking San Francisco and its taxpayers to the poor house, and many of us are hopeful the Board of Supervisors will insist on some rational changes,” Peskin said.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

America’s Cup price tag

$300M Total cost for competition

$52M Cost to The City

$32M City costs to be offset by fundraising

$22M City costs to be offset by hotel and sales taxes

$1.4B Economic benefits for Bay Area, as estimated by race officials

Sources: America’s Cup Event Authority, San Francisco budget and legislative analyst report

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/02/regatta-deal-might-sink-san-franciscos-coffers

It also comes with a deal involving some of The City’s most valuable public real estate, and the pact with race officials needs significant changes if San Francisco’s financial ship is going to stay on course, a budget analyst’s report released Thursday says.

The business arm of the race, the America’s Cup Event Authority, plans to finance waterfront pier improvements that the Port of San Francisco cannot afford. In return, race officials would receive ownership and long-term rent-free leases after the 2013 event for some of The City’s most desirable Bay-front property to build luxury condominiums, retail outlets and other developments yet to be determined.

Although the Port normally requires such deals to include a portion of future lease revenue to be funneled back into public coffers, that’s not currently part of the America’s Cup agreement. But the report conducted by budget and legislative analyst Harvey Rose recommends a 1 percent equivalent of all condominium sales be retained by the Port and that it also should receive a cut of real estate transfer fees.

Under the terms of the current deal, the authority would initially invest $55 million in pier improvements in exchange for a 66-year lease at Piers 30-32 and ownership of Seawall Lot 330, a property already approved for condos.

The authority could then opt to do additional pier work and get 66-year leases on piers 26, 28 and 29, which would trigger repayment from The City with an 11 percent interest rate. The report recommends that a cap be placed on the amount race officials can spend on improvements, or else The City could end up being roped into repayment for up to 91 years after the event.

The report suggests The City should nix Pier 29, at the foot of Telegraph Hill, from being transferred to race officials after the event. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has been pointing to the lucrative property as a problem spot in the deal.

“Pier 29 needs to come off the table,” Chiu said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll push to have it removed in the weeks ahead.”

Stephen Barclay, a board member of the authority and the group’s primary negotiator, has been talking tough in recent weeks, saying concessions have already been made to mitigate the financial stress on the Port. Barclay said on Tuesday he will “draw the line” with Pier 29, because it is essential to the authority seeing a return on the total $111 million it plans to spend.

“We face an urgent deadline to get construction under way, so any additional changes would detrimentally affect the balance of the bargain,” Barclay said recently in a statement.

The report also levies concern about potentially lax fundraising by the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, the nonprofit in charge of covering The City’s $52 million cost of putting on the race in September 2013.

If the committee raises its goal of $32 million by 2013 and The City can generate $22 million in hotel and sales taxes during the event, San Francisco will come out more than $2 million ahead, the report says. But if fundraising stagnates at its current $8 million level, The City’s taxpayers could be in the hole for nearly $22 million.

Local Democratic Party Chairman Aaron Peskin said the long-term fiscal impact of the race shouldn’t be taken lightly, and upcoming Board of Supervisors hearings on the matter should include discussions about how to expose The City to less risk.

“As currently structured, this transaction is still taking San Francisco and its taxpayers to the poor house, and many of us are hopeful the Board of Supervisors will insist on some rational changes,” Peskin said.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

America’s Cup price tag

$300M Total cost for competition

$52M Cost to The City

$32M City costs to be offset by fundraising

$22M City costs to be offset by hotel and sales taxes

$1.4B Economic benefits for Bay Area, as estimated by race officials

Sources: America’s Cup Event Authority, San Francisco budget and legislative analyst report

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/02/regatta-deal-might-sink-san-franciscos-coffers