A coroner examining the San Francisco plane crash that claimed the lives of two passengers is investigating whether one of the two survived the accident but was then hit by a rescue vehicle rushing to the burning aircraft.
Coroner Robert Foucrault said senior fire department officials had notified him and his staff that one of the 16-year-olds may have been struck on the runaway. Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia, both from Zhejiang in eastern China, were killed when an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 exploded into flames after a crash landing at San Francisco international airport on Saturday.u00a0
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An autopsy is expected to be completed on Monday that will determine whether the Chinese teenager's death was caused by injuries sustained in the crash or a secondary incident. Foucrault said one of the bodies was found on the tarmac near where the plane’s tail broke off when it hit the runway, while the other was found on the left side of the plane about nine metres (30ft) away from where the aircraft stopped.
The San Francisco fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said: “One of the deceased did have injuries consistent with those of having been run over by a vehicle.”u00a0