First reports about the Asiana plane crash in San Francisco this weekend revealed that 180 were injured and two were killed.
But now a county coroner is conducting an autopsy to determine if one of the two 16-year-old victims was killed by an emergency vehicle arriving to the chaotic scene.
According to the Huffington Post:
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said senior San Francisco Fire Department officials notified him and his staff at the crash site Saturday that one of the two 16-year-old Chinese girls who died from the crash may have been struck on the runaway.
“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 on Saturday to know if they had external injuries.
One of the bodies was found on the runway near where the plane’s tail broke off upon impact, he said. The other was found on the left side of the aircraft about 30 feet away from where the Boeing 777 came to rest after it skidded down the tarmac and not far from an emergency slide.
Joanne Hayes-White, the San Francisco fire chief, said that she did not know if the two girls were alive when crews arrived on scene. And although she didn’t return phone calls from the Associated Press on Monday, she did previously say that the girl found on the side of the plane had injuries consistent with having been run over.
“As it possibly could have happened, based on the injuries sustained, it could have been one of our vehicles that added to the injuries, or another vehicle,” she told The Chronicle. “That could have been something that happened in the chaos. It will be part of our investigation.”
The autopsy is expected to be completed by Monday and the victims’ families are expected to arrive in California to receive the results.
It was also revealed that the pilot who was flying the Asiana flight was in training and had only had 43 hours of experience flying the Boeing 777 aircraft.
Kang Kook Lee, born in 1967, was identified as the pilot of the plane that crashed.
Asiana spokeswoman Hyo Min Lee told The Times the pilot had been flying since 1994 and was a “very experienced pilot” flying other types of planes, including Boeing 747s, 737s and Airbus 320s. But “he was in training for B777,” she said.
The NTSB is investigating to see if the pilot’s error had anything to do with the crash.
Here are more photos of the unbelievable crash:
SOURCE: Huffington Post | GETTY | LA TIMES
