DVI News 8 June 2009
08/Jun/2009
Crash: Air France A332 over Atlantic on June 1st 20091 June 2009.
An Air France Airbus A330-200 (CF6-80E engines), registration F-GZCP performing flight AF-447 (dep May 31st) from Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) with 216 passengers and 12 crew, is overdue at Paris Charles de Gaulle for more than three hours following a scheduled 11:15 hours flight time and estimated arrival at 11:10 CEST (09:10Z). The airplane had departed Brazil's civil radar coverage normally.
Full article at: http://avherald.com/h?article=41a81ef1/0004
17 die in head-on truck crash in PNG
1 June 2009. Papua New Guinea.
A horrific head-on truck crash in Papua New Guinea has killed 17 people.
Two passenger trucks collided near Bereina in Central Province.
Fourteen passengers and the two drivers died instantly in the accident on Saturday afternoon, and a young boy died later from severe internal injuries at the Port Moresby General Hospital.
People were wailing in a mass outpouring of grief in the hospital grounds as relatives identified the dead
Full article at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10575795
Death toll climbs to 21
2 June 2009. Papua New Guinea.
The death toll from the weekendÆs horrific collision has climbed to 21. Sources at the Port Moresby General Hospital yesterday put the death toll as of 5.30pm at 21 - taking the number of deaths up from 15 when the accident happened on Saturday.
15 victims died on the scene of the accident and two more died while they were transported down from Bereina Health Centre on the same day and the next four died at the PMGH Emergency Ward while under-going resuscitation.
Harry Aitau was waiting anxiously to confirm whether his aunty who was travelling from home into Port Moresby was among those four female bodies lying at the morgue. He said he had to identify the bodies at the hospital morgue to relieve his mind and was at the hospital for staff to make the arrangement for him to visit the deceased.
Full article at: http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20090602/tuhome.htm
Fromelles DNA fears
2 June 2009.
AS forensic archeologists unearth from mass graves the bodies of nearly 200 victims of the World War I battle of Fromelles, concern is growing that the prospects for DNA identification are plummeting and the long-dead Diggers will be reburied anonymously.
The problem is that no decision has been announced about which genetics team will tackle the job. Meanwhile, the timeline established by British and Australian officials states all bodies will be exhumed by September, testing will be done by December and the remains will be re-interred in groups of 20, beginning next February.
Full article at: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25577448-31477,00.html
Work begins to ID funeral home bodies
3 June 2009.
Investigators completed the first step Tuesday in what could be a lengthy process to identify remains left behind at Serenity Gardens Funeral Chapel, Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick said.
"The sooner we identify them, the better, for the families of these people and for the families with concerns that it's their loved one," Pastrick said.
Gary police Detective Jeff Hemphill is investigating the criminal aspects of the four bodies and one cremated remains discovered last week when the building's new owners conducted an inspection.
University of Indianapolis forensic anthropologist Stephen Nawrocki and a team of forensic experts examined the remains at the Lake County morgue Tuesday
Full article at: www.post-trib.com/news/lake/1604024,gserenity0603.article
Air France Airbus may never be found
5 June 2009.
Hope of finding remains from the downed Air France Flight 447 Airbus were fading tonight as investigators confirmed that faulty instrument readings had played a role in the crash in the Atlantic which apparently killed all 228 aboard.
French Ministers voiced frustration after the Brazilian forces said they had been mistaken in identifying flotsam collected from the ocean as coming from the Airbus A330 that disappeared in a storm on Monday on a flight from Rio to Paris.
They also said that they had mis-identified a fuel slick on the surface.
Full article at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6439580.ece
US Citizens Get NZ Special Service Medal (Erebus)
5 June 2009.
Thirteen United States citizens were presented the New Zealand Special Service Medal (Erebus) for their work in ôOperation Overdueö, the body recovery, crash investigation and victim identification resulting from New ZealandÆs worst air disaster.
New Zealand Ambassador Roy Ferguson and Vice Chief of Defence Force Rear Admiral Jack Steer presented the medals to the recipients who included US Navy personnel and transport accident investigators.
The NZSSM (Erebus) was instituted in November 2006 to recognise the service of those New Zealanders, and citizens of the United States of America and other countries, who were involved with the extremely difficult and very unpleasant, hazardous, and extreme circumstances associated with the body recovery, crash investigation and victim identification phases of Operation Overdue. Operation Overdue was mounted by the New Zealand Police following the crash of Air New Zealand DC-10-30 ZK-NZP Flight TE901 on the north slope of Mount Erebus, Ross Island, Antarctica on 28 November 1979, with the loss of all 257 passengers and crew
Full article at: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0906/S00069.htm
25 killed in bus blaze in Chengdu city
5 June 2009. China.
Twenty-five people were burned alive and 76 injured when a bus caught fire in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, around 8 am on Friday.
Full article at: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-06/05/content_8255275.htm
12 people killed in road accident in Syria
5 June 2009.
Syria's official news agency says a speeding truck has collided with a bus south of Damascus, killing 12 people and injuring 18 others.
Full article at: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=969037&lang=eng_news
80 people are feared buried in the landslide
6 June 2009. China.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have ordered the local authorities to spare no efforts to save those people buried in a fatal landslide in the southwest city of Chongqing.
At least 80 people are feared buried in the landslide at an iron ore mining area.
More than 500 rescuers are searching for the missing.
Full article at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/06/content_11496538.htm
Storms cause 27 deaths
6 June 2009. China.
Storms sweeping five provinces in central and east China killed 27 people and damaged more than 341,000 hectares of crops, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Friday.
The homes of about 4.44 million people were destroyed or damaged during the storm, with Henan and Anhui worst hit.
Full article at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/06/content_11496204.htm
Day-care fire victims 'unidentifiable'
7 June 2009. Mexico.
TRAUMATISED parents have begun the heart-wrenching task of identifying the young victims of a fire that tore through a Mexican day-care centre, killing at least 35 infants and toddlers.
But while some were bracing for the most distressing duty a parent could face - that of identifying their child's remains - others were struggling to determine the identities of the severely burned survivors of the tragedy.
"There are children in the hospital with such bad burns that it is impossible for their parents to identify them," a doctor at the local paediatric hospital said.
Many of those who died were burned beyond recognition.
Full article at: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25600092-401,00.html
Comment: Some DVI procedures could also be applied to the living in these situations.
Deaths in Mexico day-care fire rise to 38 children
7 June 2009.
The death toll from a fire at a day-care centre in northern Mexico rose to 38 children with 23 more hospitalized, many with life-threatening burns, Mexican authorities said on Saturday.
Smoke inhalation killed many children before rescuers could reach them, with the victims ranging in age from a few months old to about 3 years old, authorities said.
Full article at: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55507U20090607
Mexico buries children after fire claims 38 lives
7 June 2009.
Grieving Mexican parents have begun burying their children after a deadly fire in a government day-care centre in the north of the country claimed at least 38 young lives.
Most of the fatalities from Friday's blaze at the state-run ABC day-care centre in the town of Hermosillo were under the age of two.
Full article at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5je2q9icvEjPHXogliMZyiY7jrOig
Sabotage not ruled out in fatal bus blaze
7 June 2009. China.
Sabotage can not be ruled out as the cause of a bus blaze that killed at least 25 people and injured 76 others on Friday in southwest China's Chengdu City, an official said yesterday.
An initial investigation suggested that self-combustion or a mechanical problem could not have caused the blaze.
Mao Zhixiong, a government spokesman, said DNA had been collected from the 25 victims to help confirm their identities.
Full article at: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200906/20090607/article_403316.htm
2 bodies, ticket found near Air France crash site
7 June 2009.
Brazilian investigators searching a zone of several hundred square kilometres for debris recovered the bodies of two male passengers Saturday morning about 70 kilometres south of where the flight emitted its last signals ù roughly 640 kilometres northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.
Brazilian air force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral said an Air France ticket was found inside a leather briefcase. The ticket number "corresponds to a passenger on the flight," he said.
Admiral Edison Lawrence said the bodies were being transported to the Fernando de Noronha islands for identification. A backpack with a laptop and a vaccination card also was recovered.
Full article at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iOegnahAFcEgwJZ4WKGkVz9Dgq5wD98LPFDO0
The identification of air crash victims
7 June 2009.
Two bodies were recovered Saturday from an Air France jetliner that disappeared over the Atlantic with 228 people on board five days earlier.
The identification of the victims' bodies after a plane crash demands a painstakingly precise work and that process will likely be complicated by the conditions after days in the ocean.
Often in air disasters the remains can no longer be identified by their relatives or by the body's fingerprints because the corpses are either too mutilated, lacerated or burnt beyond any possible recognition.
The identification process may last for weeks. In some cases the identity can never be determined.
Full article at: http://eyugoslavia.com/general/07/the-identification-of-air-crash-victims-229156/
Former Funeral Home Remains Identified
6 June 2009. USA.
Remains of all four bodies found in a vacant funeral home have been identified, according the Lake County coroner's office.
Full article at: http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/47120497.html
More bodies and debris recovered from flight 447
8 June 2009. Brazil.
More debris and personal belongings have been recovered from the Atlantic by navy crews searching for the Air France jet which crashed exactly one week ago.
So far 17 bodies have also been retrieved
Full article at: http://www.euronews.net/2009/06/08/more-bodies-and-debris-recovered-from-flight-447/
Speaking for the dead
7 June 2009. Hong Kong.
In the aftermath of a disaster, matching a missing person with a dead body brings closure to the family. But for forensics experts, it's not a simple matter of ticking off a name each time a body bag is brought in.
Often, the bodies are decomposed, bloated, burnt or have missing parts. The forensics team has to find ways to identify them, bearing in mind that the task does not allow room for error.
"Decomposition is the enemy of forensic identification," says forensic odontologist Dr Carl Leung Ka Kui from Hong Kong
Four months after the tsunami, he volunteered to go to Thailand with the Australian Federal Police.
Many of the tsunami victims there were tourists, and their home countries had sent in forensic experts to help. As a senior in the field, Dr Leung was required to re-examine their findings to make sure everything had been done properly.
The conventional method of using dental records (not always available in this part of the world) and finger prints is still the quickest and cheapest, he says, and about 75% of cases are processed that way.
Full article at: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/6/7/lifefocus/4062425&sec=lifefocus
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