Legality of Chinese study tour questioned after Asiana crash in San Francisco
School officials deny responsibility after deaths of students at San Francisco airport
New questions emerged yesterday over the legality of the summer study tour programme that the two Chinese students who died in Saturday's airliner crash in San Francisco were attending.
The victims, Ye Mengyuan, 16, and Wang Linjia, 17, were among pupils from Jiangshan High School travelling to the United States aboard Asiana Flight 214 when it crash-landed.
The girls and many of the 141 Chinese passengers on board where participants in study tour groups.
Yesterday, officials at the school in Zhejiang province sought to play down their role in the study trip to California, which was organised by the Boyue consultancy.
Zheng Liming, a deputy principal for Jiangshan High School, said the school was responsible only for introducing pupils to the programme. He said all contracts were between the participants and Boyue and the school saw none of the money.
But in April last year, the Ministry of Education, the Tourism Administration and other state-level authorities ruled only schools, education authorities and official organisations such as the Communist Youth League could organise such trips.
The main organisers could sign contracts with qualified travel agencies to arrange services such as air ticket booking and accommodation. According to these rules, a consultancy would not be eligible to be an organiser.