Friends remember Lisa Chung victim of Mexico boating accident.

That was evident Wednesday night when hundreds of people came to honor her at a vigil at South Grand Prairie High School.

"She deserves it. Everyone loved her," said her cousin Jennifer Bui.

"She had everything. She was smart, she was funny, she was beautiful. She had the whole package," said her childhood friend John Cosme, who was also on the boat. "This kind of thing shouldn't happen to someone like that."

A South Grand Prairie High School graduate died Tuesday, three days after she and other students jumped from a sinking tour boat in Mexico.

Lisa Chung, 18, apparently was trapped under a rescue vessel in the chaotic scene about 200 yards off Cancún. By the time rescuers pulled her to the surface, the honor student had suffered heart and lung failure.

The captain of the Sea Star ordered a half-dozen North Texas students and more than 100 other passengers to jump into the ocean when the boat began sinking Saturday afternoon. Ms. Chung and another student, Loren Dailey, bobbed toward the surface as another boat slid over them.

"We had life vests on so we were coming back up, and the next thing we know when we come back up there was a boat on top of us," Ms. Dailey said Tuesday. "And not like pinning us down, but I mean, that's all I could feel. I believe it's a rescue boat that came in and didn't know we were underneath the water."

Danh Thikim Chung, who flew to Cancun after the accident, said her daughter was going on a trip on the Sea Star boat for her summer vacation. A preliminary report by the port captain said the boat, owned by Caribbean Carnival, appeared to be carrying 126 people. It is authorized to carry 80. Sea Star Captain Agustin Cituk denied it was overloaded, saying the boat has a capacity of 250 people. Bianca Jones, 18, a golf teammate with at least one of the seniors, said she considered joining the trip.

John Cosme, 18, a member of the South Grand Prairie party, was on the upper deck of the two-level boat. Cosme said in a telephone call from Mexico on Monday that crew members did not wait for passengers to get into life jackets to begin leaving the vessel themselves. Jay Wiggs said his son, Carson, 18, of Grand Prairie, told him the crew left passengers — perhaps 100 people — to fend for themselves. "The crew basically said, 'Here's the life vest,' " Jay Wiggs said his son told him. "Next thing you know, the crew just took off."

Lisa Tam Chung retornó ayer en punto de las 21 horas a su país de origen, en ambulancia aérea y en estado de coma, con muerte cerebral, a bordo de un avión Learjet 35, con matrícula N42HN que llegó procedente del aeropuerto de Dallas, para llevarla a Houston en busca de mejor atención médica.

The young woman's family have contacted me and asked me to help locate a man who tried to help her. If anyone has any information on another passenger who helped pull Lisa from the water, please contact me and I will connect you to her family. One of Lisa's friends recalls a young African American man wearing blue swim trunks being there and assisting, if you think you may know him, please let us know. Click on my profile to get the address.