Westminster victim left floating for five minutes before rescue
A VICTIM of the Westminster terror attack was left face-down in the Thames for five minutes because a boat captain thought she was already dead.
Andreea Cristea, 31, had plunged into the river after being hit by Khalid Masood’s car as she walked on Westminster Bridge with Andrei Burnaz, her boyfriend.
Mr Burnaz was desperately searching for his partner when Michael Brown shouted and gestured to alert a passing tourist boat to her, floating face-down in the water.
Despite an emergency distress signal, and shouts from Mr Brown and passengers on the City Cruises tourist clipper, skipper Danny Cooper initially thought Ms Cristea’s body was “garbage”.
CCTV footage captured captain Gordon Markley asking if it was a “windup” before heading outside with a boat hook. Mr Cooper said he and his colleague assumed the Romanian tourist had been in the water for hours or days and believed it was “impossible” to fish her out using the hook.
“We presumed it was a body that had been in the water for a long time. It wouldn’t have been nice for anyone involved. There were children sitting downstairs.”
Gareth Patterson QC, representing Ms Cristea’s family, said she had been face-down in the river for two minutes when she was first secured, but remained immersed for five minutes before she was brought out.
Mr Cooper told the inquest he had past experience of fishing unconscious people out of the water, but had no training on how to do it on the highsided clipper.
Jonathan Hough, QC, for the coroner, asked: “Was there any way you could have got the body onto the boat safely?”
The captain said he thought lifting her up the side of the boat risked causing “more damage”.
Asked if he thought it would have been possible to get Ms Cristea out of the water quicker or more safely, Mr Cooper said: “In the conditions or circumstances, no.”
The first-aid trained, licensed skipper said: “We don’t bring dead bodies aboard the boat.”
The inquest heard London Fire Brigade’s Fire Flash boat arrived at the scene and used specialist equipment to bring Ms Cristea on board. She was found to be alive when they pulled her from the water but died in hospital on April 6 last year.