Looking at the burnt, shattered hull of the Boeing 777 jet that crashed upon landing at San Francisco International airport on Saturday, it’s tempting to say that the survival of all but two of the 307 passengers and crew was a miracle. The jumbo jet came in at a frighteningly low altitude after a long trans-Pacific flight from South Korea and then, according to passenger reports, seconds before landing, smashed into the edge of the airport runway, tearing off its tail before spinning on its belly. A fireball erupted, shrouding the plane in clouds of black smoke as rescue crews ran to the scene and passengers climbed out through aircraft doors and the holes that had been ripped into the hull.
The fire eventually incinerated the aircraft’s core with such intensity that it burned through much of the roof.
But by then, everyone had gotten out alive, except for
two 16-year-old Chinese students — Ye Meng Yuan and Wang Lin Jia
whose bodies were found on the tarmac.
The survival of so many in such dire circumstances does seem like divine luck. But aviation experts point out fatal jumbo jet crashes are very rare. The last one in the U.S. happened more than 10 years ago in 2001, when a plane crashed in a New York City neighborhood.
Read more: http://nation.time.com/2013/07/07/san-franciscos-boeing-777-crash-why-it-was-survivable/#ixzz2YQ6AMgL8
Authorities say one of the two dead victims from the crash was found outside the plane and had apparently be hit by a fire truck or an ambulance. San Francisco's medical examiner is now conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of the girl's death, fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.
No comments:
Post a Comment