SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco fire officials acknowledged Monday that one of their trucks rushing to the Asiana Airlines crash at that city’s airport may have run over one of the two Chinese girls killed in the accident.
Autopsy results determining whether her death was caused by a rescue vehicle or the plane crash were pending Monday.
“One of our fire apparatus may have come into contact with one of our two victims who was at the scene,” Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said during a news conference. “I assure you we are looking closely at this.”
The body of the girl who might have been struck was found on the left side of the aircraft about 30 feet (9 metres) away from where the Boeing 777 came to rest after it skidded down the tarmac, said San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault.
The girl was not far from an emergency slide, he said. The other body was found on the runway near where the plane’s tail broke off upon impact, he said. The coroner said both girls were pronounced dead at the airport.
Foucrault said senior San Francisco Fire Department officials notified him and his staff at the crash site Saturday that one of the two girls killed in the crash might have been struck on the runway.
“We were made aware of the possibility at the scene that day,” Foucrault said, adding that he did not get a thorough look at the victims Saturday to know if they had external injuries.
The teenagers’ families were expected to arrive in San Francisco on Monday, and they will receive the autopsy results before they are made public, Foucrault said.
Chinese state media and Asiana Airlines have identified the girls as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, students in Zhejiang, an affluent coastal province in eastern China. They were part of a group of students and teachers who were heading to summer camps in California, according to education authorities in China.
While speaking to reporters at San Francisco General Hospital on Sunday, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee called the questions being raised about a rescue vehicle possibly striking one of the victims “unsubstantiated.”
“It was very, very hectic when they arrived minutes after the plane came to rest, and there was smoke coming out, and people were trying to get out as quickly as they could,” Lee said.
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