SF Fire Dep’t: Asiana Crash Victim Had Injuries Consistent With A Vehicle Runnig Over Her
According to a fire department spokeswoman, one of the two school girls who died at the scene of the Asiana Airlines Inc. plane crash may have been killed by a vehicle from the rescue operations.
She said that it is possible that it could have been a fire truck, though a conclusion would be made after the coroner's examination.
The airline based in Seoul, said the girls were Wang Linjia and Ye Meng, both 16 years.
So far, it is uncertain if the death of one of the girls was caused by the crash or by a fire vehicle during the rescue. It is possible that the 16-year olds sustained injuries from the crash landing.
"The incident commander was notified by one of the chiefs on the field that it appeared that there was a possibility that one of the deceased had been hit by one of the fire vehicles," said the spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department, Mindy Talmadge, adding, "Most likely it was a fire vehicle, but everything is still kind of up in the air until the investigation is complete," the Guardian reported.
The two girls were travelling to the U.S to attend summer camps. They were the only two travellers who wee killed among the 307 passengers and crew on board Asian's Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport. on July 6. U.S. investigators are trying to determine why the South Korean pilots didn't react to a critical loss of airspeed until seven seconds before the plane slammed into a seawall short of the airport's runway.
Deborah Hersman, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman, said the a video of the scene does not have adequate clarity to determine if the girl was hit by a fire vehicle.
The victim's body was positioned near the plane, which spun out of control off the runway.
Joanne Hayes-White, San Francisco's Kerchief, has assigned the San Francisco Police Department to have its top-notch accident investigators to the case.
According to Talmadge, Chief Hayes-White has also consulted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the NTSB, and airport authorities.
Since the crash, reports say that the pilot who landed the flight was in training and this was his first time landing a 777 at San Francisco's International Airport. A spokeswoman for Asiana, Lee Hyo-min was quoted by the Los Angeles Times that the pilot, Lee-Kang-Kook was experienced and had flown other major aircraft models like the Boeing 747, and Airbus 320.
The crash occurred when the plane ran into a sea wall and burst into flames on the runway.