Sheilah Sweatman, 29, was taking part in a recovery mission on the Goat River when she became tangled in a steel cable in June, 2011. (Knowledge Network)

A video showing the drowning death of a B.C. search and rescue volunteer during a recovery mission is provoking strong criticism by family members at the inquest into her death.

Sheilah Sweatman, 29, died in 2011 while trying to retrieve the body of a woman in a vehicle submerged in the Goat River, near Creston, B.C.

The video of her death was shot by a documentary TV crew that was working on a series on search and rescue teams. It was never aired on television, but on Tuesday it was played at the coroner's inquest investigating her death.

It starts with Sweatman, a swift water expert, following instructions to hook a steel cable onto the submerged vehicle.

The vehicle then shifts underwater, moving downstream and the raft Sweatman stands on begins to sink. She is then seen bucked off the raft, her leg entangled in the steel cable.

The video shows Sweatman fighting for her life for more than five minutes as she struggles to keep her head above water, while being dragged under by the cable that tethered her to the sunken car.

Search and rescue volunteers can be seen trying to row to her, swim in her direction and give her a rope, but nothing works before Sweatman slips below the water a final time.

Her brother, Mark, was the only member of the Sweatman family who stayed in court to watch the video.

He had harsh words for the volunteers who he said didn't do enough to save his sister.

"No one had fins on. No one had a snorkel or a mask or anything of use. There was no originality, there was no heroics. What I saw was a lot of complacent witnesses standing around in very expensive gear."

On Wednesday, Search and Rescue personnel, who were also on scene, will testify and give their version of what happened.

Media groups had pushed for the release of the 12-minute video of the 2011 recovery mission, but on Wednesday afternoon the coroner said the video would not be released.

With files from the CBC's Bob Keating