Ye Mengyuan — one of the three young girls who died when their plane crashed on July 7 at San Francisco International Airport – wasn't killed on impact in the accident, authorities said on Friday. She was alive until she was run over by an emergency vehicle on the scene, likely a fire truck.
The cause of death was first reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
The 16-year-old Chinese student died from "multiple blunt injuries consistent with being run over by a motor vehicle. Those injuries indicate she was alive at the time,'' said coroner Robert Foucrault during a news conference on Friday.
Questions have surrounded Ye's death since details of the crash began trickling out, the Chronicle reports:
Ye was sitting in the back of the plane, according to the [National Transportation Safety Board], but ... Ye's body, covered in fire-fighting foam, was found at the edge of a paved path near the left wing sometime before 12:20 p.m., the time her death was reported to dispatchers, the Fire Department said. That was 53 minutes after the crash.