One of the Chinese teenagers who were found dead in the Asiana Airlines wreckage may have actually survived the crash – only to be struck and killed by emergency responders scrambling to the crash site.
As the first photographs begin to emerge of the two schoolgirls, authorities say one of the victims was found outside the plane and had apparently been hit by a fire truck or an ambulance.
San Francisco’s medical examiner is now conducting an autopsy to determine whether it was the vehicle that killed her or if she was dead before she was struck.
“One of the deceased did have injuries consistent with those of having been run over by a vehicle,” fire department spokeswomen Mindy Talmadge said.
“Many agencies were on the field.”
In the chaos of the crash-landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, dozens of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances rushed to the scene to help rescue the jetliner’s 291 passengers and battle the blaze that broke out on board.
Witnesses reported seeing dozens of people running on the tarmac, attempting to escape the burning wreckage of the plane.
Asiana Airlines said the two dead in San Francisco Boeing 777 crash landing were Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both 16 years old from Jiangshan in eastern China.
They were both headed for a summer camp in the U.S. – part of a group of 70 Chinese students and teachers aboard the Boeing 777 that crash-landed.
A total of 141 Chinese nationals were aboard the flight that was bound for San Francisco from Seoul, South Korea.
Wang Linjia’s parents were both on the fight, as well, and could be seen sobbing as they learned their daughter died in the crash.
The black box aboard the Boeing 777 jetliner set out three crucial moments – beginning 7 seconds before impact – that show the plane was approaching the runway too slowly and that the pilots were trying to correct the problem.
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