Asiana Flight 214: No charges in death of survivor

A firefighter responding to a San Francisco plane crash who ran over and killed a survivor covered in flame-retardant foam will not be charged.

The death of Ye Mengyuan, 16, "was a tragic accident", not a crime, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in a statement.

Ye, a Chinese student, was alive on the airport tarmac after Asiana flight 214 crashed on 6 July.

All but three of the 307 people on board survived.

But 180 people on the Boeing 777 from Seoul to San Francisco were injured when the plane hit a sea wall as it approached too low and too slow.

An investigation into the crash is still underway.

A medical examiner concluded from internal haemorraging that Ye was still alive when she was thrown from the plane on to the runway during the collision.

Anthony Tarricone, an attorney for Ye's family, said he was not surprised criminal charges were not filed.

"It's really not the subject of criminal prosecution," Mr Tarricone said. "It's properly the subject of civil action, which we intend to prosecute."

Ye and her close friend, 16-year-old Wang Linjia, who also died, were students at Jiangshan Middle School in Zhejiang.

They were part of a group of students and teachers from the school who were heading to summer camp in southern California.

A third passenger, Liu Yipeng, 15, later died at hospital.