Diplomat consoles crash survivors

Family members of other Chinese passengers involved in the crash left for the US on Thursday as they had previously requested, and others will depart China on Friday, said Moon Myung-young, managing director and head of the China Office of Asiana Airlines, CCTV reported.

Chinese passengers will begin to return to China on July 18, Moon added.

The South Korean airline will open reception centers in Shanghai and Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, to handle issues related to the crash.

The airline's Chinese branch also urged the company's headquarters in Seoul to work out compensation plans before the Chinese passengers return, Moon added.

With the assistance of the consulate-general in San Francisco, Chinese students who survived the crash talked with their families back in China through video on Tuesday.

Li Lijia, 16, one of the students who was injured, said she was sleeping during the landing before she smelled smoke in the plane. She said the emergency slide wasn't working before she jumped off the aircraft. The girl is now hospitalized in Stanford, California.

At a news conference on Wednesday, the US National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot of the Boeing 777 told attendants not to begin passenger evacuation in the chaotic immediate aftermath of the accident.

NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said the pilots didn't tell flight attendants to initiate evacuation procedures until after cabin staff alerted the cockpit to flames spreading outside the plane.

Zhao Yanrong in Beijing contributed to this story.