After an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 jet, Flight 214, crashed on Saturday in San Francisco, killing 2 people and injuring 182 abroad the plane, two flight attendants were found alive on the Tarmac after the accident after having been ejected from the aircraft, and the school of the summer camp that the two girls found dead were supposed to attend is planning a vigil, ABC News reports.
"Two flight attendants were ejected from the aircraft during the impact sequence so they were not at their stations when the aircraft came to rest," National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said at a news conference yesterday. "They were found down the runway and off to the side of the runway. Those flight attendants survived, but they obviously had gone through a serious event and have injuries."
The pilots of the plane reported to the National Transportation Safety Board that the aircraft was not set for correct landing speed, and that they'd positioned the auto-throttles to keep up an air speed of 137 knots, significantly faster than the actual speed of the plane as it flew in and crashed in San Francisco flying 30 knots below its target speed. Hersman said that the NTSB is looking into whether or not the throttles were activated correctly.
According to an interview with crew members, Hersman reported that the plane was "sent into a 360 degree spin" when it crash landed.
The two young women that died in the crash of Flight 214 were traveling to the U.S. from China for summer camp, 16-year olds Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan. Hersman told ABC News that the girls were sitting in the rear of the plane where most of the people were injured. An investigation is currently underway to determine if the teens were hit by a rescue vehicle that came to the plane's aid after the crash.
The president of Asiana Airlines, Young-Doo Yoon said he has personally apologized to their families, though he has also defended the pilots of the jet, who he said were qualified crew members with plenty of experience flying into San Francisco. The summer camp program at West Valley Christian Church in Los Angeles has been cancelled in the wake of the tragedy, the students and chaperones expected to return to China. The school is planning a vigil for the girls and collecting money for their parents that they say will be used to send them care packages.
"These are amazing, amazing gifted, talented, great prospects with a lot of talent that are coming over here," West Valley Christian School administrator Derek Swales told ABC News. "It's just devastating to think that superstar kid in the classroom with all that potential was just taken."
