China Central Television said on Sunday that the two victims were students at Jiangshan Middle School in China's eastern Zhejiang province. It cited a fax from Asiana Airlines, which operated the plane that crashed, to the Jiangshan city government. The two students were identified as Ye Mengyuan and Wang Linjia.
An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 with 307 people on board crashed and burst into flames as it landed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday.
The airline said the two victims were 16 years old.
Of the 291 passengers on board, 141 were Chinese. At least 70 Chinese students and teachers were on the plane heading to summer camps, according to education authorities in China.
Witnesses said the tail of the plane appeared to hit the approach area of the runway, which juts out into San Francisco Bay, as it came in for landing. The tail came off and the aircraft left a trail of debris before coming to rest beside the runway.
Pictures taken by survivors immediately after the crash showed passengers emerging from the wrecked plane and hurrying away. Thick smoke then billowed from the wreckage, and TV footage later showed the fuselage of the aircraft gutted and blackened by fire.
There was no immediate indication of the cause of the accident, and federal officials were travelling from Washington to investigate. One survivor said the pilot seemed to be trying to gain height just before crash.
Serious injuries
Asiana Airlines said the flight, which had originated in Shanghai, had carried 291 passengers and 16 crew members. Most were Chinese, Korean and US nationals.
Dale Carnes, assistant deputy chief of the San Francisco fire department, said two people were killed in the crash, and 49 were transported immediately to area hospitals with serious injuries. Another 132 people were later taken to hospitals with moderate and minor injuries.
Five people were in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, according to spokesperson Rachael Kagan. She said a total of 52 people were treated for burns, fractures and internal injuries.
Three people were in critical condition at Stanford Hospital.
The crash was the first-to date fatal accident involving the Boeing 777, a popular long-range jet that has been in service since 1995. It was the first fatal commercial airline accident in the United States since a regional plane operated by Colgan Air crashed in New York in 2009.
San Francisco International Airport, a major West Coast hub and gateway to Asia, was shut down for several hours after the crash and flights were diverted to Los Angeles, Seattle, Oakland and San Jose. By late afternoon two runways had reopened even as scores of safety workers scoured the airfield for debris. – Reuters; Sapa-AP