The National Forensic Science Institute (NFSI), which has been conducting tests to identify the victims of the Mozambican plane crash that killed all 33 people on board in Namibia last year, says it is now dealing with "fragmented remains" to identify the remaining 17 passengers.
NFSI director Paul Ludik said this at a press briefing on Friday in Windhoek, where it was revealed that forensic experts had identified seven more bodies this month, bringing the total number of identified bodies to 16.
The tests, on more than 600 body parts, have been conducted since last month, and Ludik, who believes they are in the final stages, however, declined to name the nationalities of identified passengers.
Ludik only said some family members were initially against the repatriation of the bodies, but later changed their minds, with some preferring full recovery of the bodies.
The wreckage recovery assessment team, sent to Bwabwata Park in Kavango East to survey the crash site, has returned to Windhoek.
Captain Ericksson Nengola, director of aircraft accidents investigations in the Ministry of Works and Transport confirmed yesterday that they arrived in the capital and will go back [to Bwabwata] since the recovery process takes between 36 and 40 weeks.
Once the survey is completed, a plan to remove the wreckage will be worked out, and this will likely occur in February.
Police spokesman Major General James Tjivikua announced on Friday at a media briefing that the latest identification was completed on 3 January 2014.
"It is also important to note that the people who have been identified to date were booked into seats in the front, middle and rear of the aircraft," he said. He said the identifications were based on fingerprint comparisons, and those identified comprise citizens of five or six countries.
According to Tjivikua, nine families of the 16 identified victims have asked for their loved ones to be repatriated before the end of the process and the repatriations are under way. He added that the remains of five others have already been sent to their countries of origin.
The plane, en route from Mozambique to Angola, went down in the deserted terrain of the Bwabwata park, where Namibia turns into a narrow strip of land sandwiched between Botswana and Angola. It was one of the worst air accidents on record in Namibia and in Mozambique's civil aviation history.
The crash made headlines in December last year when investigators found that the pilot of the Mozambican plane deliberately brought it down.
Monday 20 January 2014
http://allafrica.com/stories/201401202257.html
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