Ye Meng Yuan, Asiana Airlines crash victim, alive when hit by fire truck
Ye Meng Yuan, one of three victims from the Asiana crash in San Francisco, was alive when a fire truck ran her over as it sped to extinguish the flames, a coroner said on Friday.
It was reported earlier the 16-year-old Chinese girl was struck by an emergency vehicle, but it wasn’t known if she was alive or dead at the time.
San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault confirmed on Friday that she survived the crash, but died on the runway, the Associated Press reported.
Her injuries indicate she was hit by a vehicle, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The firetruck hit Ye because she was hidden from view underneath fire retardant foam, the San Francisco police department said last week.
“The passenger was underneath the fire retardant foam and when the fire truck repositioned itself to battle the flames aboard the fuselage, the passenger victim was discovered in the tire track of the fire truck,” police representative Albie Esparza said last Friday.
Three of the 307 passengers on board Asiana Flight 214 from Seoul to San Francisco died when it crash-landed on July 6. About 180 people were injured.
More from GlobalPost: How did the Asiana Airlines crash suddenly get racial?
Every day, reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you. We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
Make a gift today, and you’ll help us unlock a matching gift of $67,000!