SF Firefighter Faces Discipline For Usage of Helmet Cam

The San Francisco Fire Department battalion chief who recorded the chaos and calamity of the Asiana Airlines crash in July -- and the circumstances around the death of a 16-year old passenger who was struck by a fire truck -- is in trouble, according to reports.

Mark Johnson may be disciplined for using a helmet cam by fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Images from the helmet cam -- a personal camera, not a department one -- proved that Ye Meng Yuan died July 6 after surviving the plane crash.

But the footage is not authorized under a 2009 department general order that bans unauthorized video recording "in the workplace," the newspaper reported.

In other words, the camera footage violated the right to "privacy... of victims and firefighters," according to the chief.

A representative for the San Francisco Black Firefighters Association, which represents Smith, said that the reprimand is a "far stretch," the newspaper reported.

Helmet cams weren't meant to be included in the 2009 general order, said Kevin Smith, another battalion chief.

And punishing Johnson for recording the incident -- and providing the proof of what happened, according to Smith -- sets a bad precedent, he said.

Hayes-White briefly attempted to ban cameras, but then relented after realizing their value for training -- and for evidence, the newspaper reported.