Asiana Victim Killed by Vehicle, Not Crash

Coroner confirms she was alive when run over
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 19, 2013 12:46 PM CDT
Asiana Victim Killed by Vehicle, Not Crash
Ye Meng Yuan poses for photos with other classmates in China in this file photo.   (AP Photo)

A California coroner has confirmed the wrenching truth: One of the teen victims of the Asiana Airlines crash was killed not by the crash but by an emergency vehicle. The San Mateo coroner concluded that 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan of China was alive when she was run over by the vehicle, reports AP. She died of blunt force trauma. The best guess is that it was one of the fire trucks responding to the scene that hit her, though that hasn't been confirmed, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

It's also possible she was run over more than once. The girl was on the ground at the time, believed to be concealed by fire-retardant foam. She had been sitting in the back of the plane but was found near the left wing, and it remains unclear whether she was ejected upon impact. "I don't know how she got off the plane," the coroner said yesterday. "I don't think the NTSB knows." (More Asiana Airlines stories.)

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