Two Chinese Students Mourned after San Francisco Plane Crash

By Lauren Leigh Noske

Two Chinese high-school students from the eastern Zhejiang province of China lost their lives in Saturday’s plane crash in San Francisco. Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, who were participating in a three-week cultural immersion class along with 33 other students, are being mourned by their parents and classmates.

The two high-school students were good friends. They were sitting next to each other in the rear of the Boeing 777 on Asiana Airlines Flight 214 as it crashed into the runway at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday. Wang Linjia excelled in science and was elected to be class leader for three years in a row. "She was very friendly to all the classmates,” said Lu Hao, a student from Wang’s school. Ye Mengyuan, was a talented gymnast and musician who aspired to be a writer; a classmate says she “loved to smile, and liked to share everything and anything that is happy.”

Ye Mengyuan, left, and Wang Linjia, right, were killed Saturday in the Flight 214 crash in San Francisco. Here, they posed for photos with schoolmates in their classroom in Jiangshan city in eastern China's Zhejiang province, an affluent coastal province in eastern China. AP

An investigation of the plane crash is currently underway, as is the cause of death for the two victims. One of the girls is thought to have died when she was ejected by the plane, and the other may have been run over by a fire rig as more than 225 firefighters and medics rushed to rescue the victims.

The deceased’s parents are grieving after having received the news that their daughters were killed on Saturday. They will fly to the United States today, along with other parents and teachers from the girls’ school.

A family member of one of the two girls killed in San Francisco's plane crash on Saturday, prepares to get on a bus to Shanghai, from which she will leave for the U.S., in Quzhou, Zhejiang province, July 8, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer

Parents of Wang Linjia, center, are comforted by other parents Sunday at Jiangshan Middle School in Jiangshan city, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. AP

The parents of Wang Linjia, one of the two girls killed during the Asiana Airlines plane crash on Saturday, leave for San Francisco from Shanghai Pudong airport, July 8, 2013. An emergency vehicle rushing to the scene of the Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco's international airport may have run over one of the two teenage Chinese girls killed in the incident, the local fire department said on Sunday. REUTERS/Aly Song

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