adminTwo teenage Chinese girls were the only fatalities in the fiery crash on Saturday, though six of the 307 people aboard the flight remained in area hospitals in critical condition.
Chinese state media identified the two dead passengers as Ye Mengyuan (16) and Wang Linjia (17) high school classmates from eastern China’s Zhejiang province.
One of the girls may have been run over by an airport fire engine rushing to the scene, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White told reporters.
Hayes-White did not identify the victim.
“Based on the injuries sustained, it could have been one of our vehicles that added to the injuries, or another vehicle,” Hayes-White told the San Francisco Chronicle.
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault told the newspaper that the other girl appeared to have died from injuries suffered as she was hurled out of the plane when its tail broke off in the crash.
Asked about the accidental death report, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “We are still trying to verify the situation.”
The two friends were coming to visit Stanford University, just south of San Francisco, and to attend a summer camp at a local Christian school, the Chronicle reported.
The two teenagers were best friends and promising students. Wang excelled at Chinese calligraphy and painting, and Ye was a piano player and a national aerobics champion, Chinese media reported. US investigators said Sunday that the Asiana jet was traveling much slower than recommended as it attempted to land. — AFP.
Online Reporter