An investigation into the death of Asiana crash victim Ye Ming Yuan has confirmed that the 16-year-old was alive when she was hit by an emergency vehicle on the runway at San Francisco International Airport. The San Francisco Chronicle has the sad details:
San Mateo County coroner’s investigators determined that Ye Meng Yuan died of blunt force trauma as a result of being hit by a vehicle, said the sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case. It’s not known what vehicle hit the girl, but most rigs on the scene were San Francisco fire trucks stationed at the airport.
The Chronicle’s sources say that a camera mounted on a firefighter’s helmet captured footage of a person covered deeply in foam—presumably Ye—being run over by the vehicle. Authorities have not said if Ye was ejected from the plane or if she made it off herself, but initial reports suggest that she very likely would have survived the incident if she were not struck on the runway. In addition to Ye, two other teenage Chinese girls died as a result of the crash, including a 15-year-old who died from injuries six days later.
