Passenger Describes the Crash and Aftermath By Rebecca Smith Eugene Anthony Rah, speaking 10 hours after the crash of his Asiana flight from Seoul at San Francisco, said he was still reliving the day’s harrowing experience, “like a slideshow that keeps playing.” After the plane slammed into the ground, he said, it seemed to careen out of control, as it skidded sideways. “I thought that was it. I was going to die. To be honest, I’m still surprised I’m alive. When the plane hit so hard, I thought it would flip over or blow up. We were still moving at such a high rate of speed. There was smoke but no fire yet,” he said. After skidding on its belly, “the plane stopped and it was so quiet,” Mr. Rah said. “The screaming stopped and there was silence in the plane. Total silence.” Then he noticed that one of the life rafts had inflated inside the plane and it had pinned a flight attendant in a jump seat against the interior cabin wall, causing injuries. She was completely covered except for her legs. He and another passenger tried to get the raft off the attendant or pull her out. They looked for something sharp to puncture it with, but “I had nothing sharp, because of security.” Another passenger, on the other side found a way to let the air out of the raft. “She was trying to give a signal she was still alive, though she was injured. … I and another guy tried to get her out.” He didn’t get off the plane at first. He saw a diminutive flight attendant, Jiyeon Kim, who was carrying injured passengers down the aisle, to get them off the plane. “She was a hero,” he said. “This tiny, little girl was carrying people piggyback, running everywhere, with tears running down her face. She was crying, but she was still so calm and helping people. I took a photo of her.”
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 06:07:16 +0000
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