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Fire Truck May Have Run Over Asiana Plane Crash Victim

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The San Mateo County Coroner's Office is conducting an autopsy to see whether a fire truck ran over one of the teenagers who died in Saturday's Asiana Flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport.

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said one of the bodies was found on the tarmac near where the plane's tail broke off when it slammed into the runway. The other was found about 30 feet away from where the jetliner came to rest after it skidded down the runway.

Foucrault tells NBC Bay Area they were alerted by the San Francisco Fire Department "that a fire truck may have played a role in the death of one of the girls," and are trying to determine if the teen died as a result of the plane accident or a "secondary incident."

The autopsies were expected to be completed by Monday night and would determine if the injuries came from the crash or from the fire truck.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday also said it is investigating whether one of the two teenage girls killed in the crash might have been unknowingly hit by a fire vehicle at the scene.

The NTSB is conducting a "very thorough investigation" into whether one of those vehicles might have struck a victim at the crash site, fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.

The department is not allowed to discuss or speculate on specifics, she said.

The two victims who died have been identified Ye Mengtuan and Wang Linjia, both 16 and students at Jiangshan Middle School in eastern China.

In addition to the two deaths, Saturday's crash at the San Francisco International Airport wounded 180. Of the wounded, 49 are suffering from critical injuries, SFO officials said.

The plane's cockpit voice recorder showed the pilot attempted to abort its landing just 1.5 seconds before it crashed.

Passengers described chaos in the aftermath of the accident, with many of the 291 onboard escaping by sliding down emergency inflatable slides. A few exited through the back of the plane in an opening that was caused when the tail section tore off.

In the immediate minutes after the crash, police officers threw utility knives up to crew members so they could cut away passengers' seat belts.

Some passengers doused themselves with water from the bay, possibly to cool burn injuries, authorities said.

By the time the flames were out, much of the top of the fuselage had burned away. Inside - the tail section was gone, with pieces of it scattered across the beginning of the runway. One engine was gone, and the other was no longer on the wing.

Benjamin Levy, a businessman seated in the Boeing 777 jetliner's 32nd row, told NBC Bay Area the plane seemed to had been coming in too low for landing at San Francisco, and the pilot "missed the runway quite completely."

Bay City News contributed to this report.


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