Third girl dies from injuries sustained in Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco

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Third girl dies from injuries sustained in Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco

A little girl who was aboard the Asiana Airlines flight that crash-landed last weekend has become the third fatality from the tragedy, while authorities have also confirmed hat one of the two Chinese teenagers killed in the disaster was hit by a firetruck in the immediate aftermath.

Passengers evacuate the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft after it crash landed at San Francisco International Airport. A photo taken by passenger Eugene Anthony Rah. Photo: REUTERS/Eugene Anthony Rah
AP

12:57AM BST 13 Jul 2013

The disclosure about the teen raised the tragic possibility that she could have survived the crash itself only to die in it the chaotic moments that followed.

No one knows yet whether the two teens lived through the initial impact at the San Francisco airport. But police and fire officials have now confirmed that Ye Meng Yuan, 16, was hit by a firetruck racing to extinguish the blazing Boeing 777.

Her close friend Wang Linjia, also 16, was among a group of passengers who did not get immediate medical help. Rescuers did not spot her until 14 minutes after the crash.

The other little girl died on Friday morning. San Francisco General Hospital said she had been in critical condition since arriving on the day of the accident. Officials did not identify the girl at the request of her parents. Her age was also withheld.

Meng Yuan's body was found covered in firefighting foam near a seawall at the edge of the runway, along with three flight attendants who were flung onto the tarmac while still buckled in their seats. Meng Yuan was not in her seat.

"The firetruck did go over the victim at least one time. Now the other question is what was the cause of death?" police spokesman Albie Esparza said. "That's what we are trying to determine right now."

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said the results of his initial inquiry into the deaths would likely be released sometime next week. He would not comment on the police investigation.

Moments after the July 6 crash, while rescuers tried to help passengers near the burning fuselage, Wang Linjia and the flight attendants lay in the rubble almost 2,000 feet away. A group of survivors called 911 and tried to help them.

Members of the group – martial arts athletes and their families returning from a competition in South Korea – said that after escaping the plane, they sat with at least four victims who appeared to be seriously hurt. They believe one of them was one of the girls who died.

Cindy Stone, who was in that group, was recorded by California Highway Patrol dispatchers calling in for help: "There are no ambulances here. We've been on the ground 20 minutes. There are people lying on the tarmac with critical injuries, head injuries. We're almost losing a woman here. We're trying to keep her alive."

San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said that when airport personnel reached the group near the seawall, Linjia was dead. She did not know when the girl had died.

"The driver may not have seen the young lady in the blanket of foam," said Ken Willette of the National Firefighter Protection Agency, which sets national standards for training airfield firefighters. "These could be factors contributing to this tragic event."

He said firetrucks that responded to the Asiana crash would have started shooting foam while approaching the fuselage from 80 or 100 feet (25 or 30 meters) away. The foam was sprayed from a cannon on the top of the truck across the ground to clear a safe path for evacuees. That was supposed to create a layer of foam on the ground that is several inches (centimetres) high before the truck gets to the plane.

Nearly a week after the crash, the investigation indicates the pilots, a trainee and his instructor, failed to realise until too late that the aircraft was dangerously low and flying too slow.

Nothing disclosed so far by the National Transportation Safety Board investigators indicates any problems with the Boeing 777's engines, computers or automated systems.