Heroic Act: The Story Behind a San Francisco Crash Survivor’s Photo

Original Source from the : The Wall Street Journal/ Korea RealTime

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Eugene Anthony Rah

Ji-yeon Kim, left, a flight attendant on Asiana 020560.SE -5.76%Airlines Flight 214, stands near a runway with passengers after the plane crash landed at San Francisco International Airport.

By Rebecca Smith
Eugene Anthony Rah, a 46-year-old hip hop concert producer and naturalized U.S. citizen, snapped this picture with his iPhone, minutes after he evacuated Asiana flight 214.

Eugene Anthony Rah

A photo taken by Eugene Anthony Rah, a passenger on Asiana Airlines Flight 214, shows emergency responders spraying the plane after it crash landed at San Francisco International Airport.

After the plane crash landed, he said, the captain went on the loudspeaker and told everyone to get off the plane. The crew immediately went to work, opening emergency exits, deploying the inflatable slides and guiding passengers. By then, most people could smell smoke and got off quickly, except for those who were injured, said Mr. Rah, who splits his time between Seoul and Las Vegas, Nev.
One tiny woman, who he said is flight attendant Ji-yeon Kim, stood out to him, because she was helping the injured, “carrying people piggyback” who couldn’t walk. Tears were streaming down her face, he said, as she helped clear the plane only minutes before flames engulfed the passenger cabin.
He copied her name off her uniform nametag, he said, because “she was a hero.”
She’s the woman furthest to the left in the photo above, he said.
Asiana said Ms. Kim, born in 1982, joined the company in 2007 after interning for a year, and received a service award from the company in 2010.
The airline said that among 12 cabin crew on the plane, seven fainted after the hard landing, while five helped guide passengers to exits — including Ms. Kim. Asiana also said the five crew members were the last people to exit the plane after helping to evacuate the 300 passengers and seven other cabin crew members.