The firefighter who accidentally ran over and killed Ye Meng Yuan, the 16-year-old who initially survived the Asiana Airlines crash in San Francisco on July 6, will not be charged in the case, sad San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, as reported by CNN.
The China-native had been ruled alive by a California coroner when she was flung from the plane, which crashed as it landed short of the runway at San Francisco International Airport. She, however, was killed when she had been been run over by a rescue vehicle.
She received "multiple blunt injuries."
After reviewing "numerous videos," Wagstaffe's office determined there "was no criminal culpability for any individual involved in the response to the airline crash.
"The remarkable efforts of the San Francisco firefighters and police officers in responding to this very chaotic scene and in attempting to save hundreds of lives while exposing themselves to potentially life-threatening circumstances were considered in our review," the statement said.
Authorities believe that Ye was struck by a specialized vehicle, an aircraft rescue firefighting truck, known as an ARFF, that "can spray fire-retardant foam while speeding toward a burning plane," news reports said. Ye's body, covered in foam, was found near the Boeing 777's left wing.
"There are not a lot of words to describe how badly we feel, how sorry we feel for it," said San Francisco Chief Joanne Hayes-White said.
The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the July 6 crash, which occurred after the jetliner clipped a seawall, slamming into a runway, LA Times reported. In addition to Ye, two of her high school classmates were also killed. They were part of a group of Chinese high schools on their way to West Valley Christian Church and School in the San Fernando Valley for a three-week summer camp, news reports said.
Three bay Area families had alleged in lawsuits that Boeing should have "known to retrofit the plane following a similar crash in 2009 and played a critical role in the inadequate training of the airline's pilots in the inadequate training of the airline's pilots in South Korea, Mercury News reported.
"You cannot simply write this off as pilots who came in too low and too slow. There's more to it. You cannot excuse Boeing," ," said Burlingame attorney Frank Pitre, who filed three separate lawsuits against Asiana and Boeing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
