Two bright sparks die in plane crash

BEIJING (AP):

The two 16-year-old girls killed in the San Francisco plane crash were close friends and top students who were on Asiana Flight 214 for the same reason: to get a taste of American education and possibly brighten their futures.

Wang Linjia showed talent in physics and calligraphy; Ye Mengyuan was a champion gymnast who excelled in literature. Both were part of a trend among affluent Chinese families willing to spend thousands of dollars to send their children to the United States (US) for a few weeks in the summer to practise English and hopefully boost their chances of attending a US college, considered better than China's alternatives by many Chinese families.

Wang's family was staying at a hotel when they learned that their daughter was one of the two people killed when the Boeing 777 crash-landed Saturday at San Francisco International Airport. Officials said 182 people were taken to area hospitals.

When visited by a state media reporter, Wang's mother sat on a bed, crying silently and her father sat in a chair with a blank expression, said the Youth Times, an official newspaper in the girls' home province of Zhejiang, in eastern China.