Saturday 26 July 2014

2nd 'black box' found from Air Algerie crash in Mali, French forensic experts on site


France has declared a three-day mourning period to commemorate the victims of the Air Algerie Flight 5017, French President Holland declared on Saturday.

Following a meeting with families of the victims of Air Algerie President Holland said flags across France will fly at half-mast on government buildings from Monday thru Wednesday next week, in solidarity to pay tribute to the passengers and crew who were killed on Thursday's crash. Fifty-four of the 118 victims were French nationals.

The second flight data recorder from an Air Algerie flight that crashed in Mali has been found, a spokeswoman for the U.N. mission in Mali said Saturday.

A team from the U.N. mission to Mali, known as MINUSMA, is assisting the Malian authorities, at the request of that country's government, spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said.

There were no survivors of the crash early Thursday, which took off from Burkina Faso bound for Algeria.

Accounts of the number of people on board continue to differ. Air Algerie says 117 passengers and six crew were on the plane, but France says there were 118 victims in total. The Algerian government said there were 116 passengers and six crew.

French officials say 54 of those on board were French nationals.

French President Francoise Hollande and other ministers are meeting with the families of French victims Saturday in Paris. They will brief the grieving relatives on what has been discovered so far.

The wreckage was found in what Hollande said Friday was a "disintegrated state" in Mali's Gossi region, not far from the border with Burkina Faso.

The first data recorder, or black box, was found at the crash site on Friday. The cause of the crash is not yet confirmed but weather may have been a factor.

Less than an hour into the flight, the aircraft, an MD-83, disappeared from radar after changing its flight path because of bad weather, officials said.

The U.N. mission's support includes logistics, transportation, technical and scientific expertise, as well as help securing the crash site, which is in a remote and inaccessible location.

"Our experts assists the Malians and the French in the search of the site, collecting bodies, providing body bags and in securing the site aiming to speed up the work," said Achouri.

As part of French efforts to assist, 33 French forensic experts arrived at the crash site Saturday.

Saturday 26 July 2014

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/26/world/africa/air-algerie-crash/

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UAE DVI team sent to Ukraine to aid in the identification of MH17 plane victims


At the request of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), the UAE Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team set out on Tuesday to Ukraine to take part in identifying the remains of victims killed in last Thursday’s downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 plane over Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

According to Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Director General of Central Operations and Chairman of the Victims Affairs Committee, the UAE Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team led by Major Raed Al Muhairi, Director of the Victims Affairs Office includes several experts and two emergency doctors from the Emergency and Public Safety Department. The team has immediately responded to the request received from the Interpol, in keeping with the humanitarian approach pursued by the UAE leadership to help peoples and countries worldwide suffering from crises and disasters. Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi added that this international request reflects prestigious good reputation enjoyed by the UAE, and the efficiency of its police and public safety teams specialized in search and rescue, in dealing with emergency incidents’ scenes with high professionalism

For his part, Major Raed Al Muhairi, noted that the UAE is the only Arab member in the organization on Disaster Victim Identification under the umbrella of Interpol, thanks to the unwavering support from the country’s leadership, which provided the necessary financial and advanced technical resources, as well as continuous training opportunities for human cadres. “All of these measures have contributed to making our police organization one of the most modern and efficient police institution in the world,” he added.

Major Al Muhairi pointed out that a number of advanced countries have already dispatched their experts to participate in this delicate and critical mission, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, the United Kingdom among others. In conclusion, he noted that the UAE Ministry of Interior has outranked other well-established countries on the international scene, in terms of security technology and public safety.

Saturday 26 July 2014

http://www.spyghana.com/uae-dvi-identified-remains-mh17-plane-victims/

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First MH17 Crash Victims Identified


Forensic experts have identified the first of 298 people killed when flight MH17 which was shot down over Ukraine last week, the Dutch government said on Saturday.

"Today the first victim of the flight MH17 disaster was identified," the justice ministry said in a statement.

"It's a Dutch citizen and the victim's family and mayor of where they lived have been informed."

The Dutch are in charge of identifying all the victims from the July 17 disaster over rebel-held Ukraine, 193 of whom were Dutch.

"The team of 200 specialists is busy with the identification process, but warns that it can take months for all the victims to be identified," the statement said.

Some bodies remain at the crash site but 227 coffins with the remains of people of 17 nationalities have already been flown back to the Netherlands for identification.

All remains have yet to be recovered from the crash site, with the Netherlands and Australia seeking a mandate to send troops to secure the area amid ongoing fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrianian forces.

Saturday 26 July 2014

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/140683-first-mh17-crash-victims-identified

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Case of mistaken identity after bus disaster: Mix-up brings joy to one family, devastation for another


It was a day of boundless joy for Swamy Goud on Friday. This farmer of Kistapur village, who was mourning the loss of his 'son' in Thursday's bus accident at Masaipet village in Medak district, suddenly erupted in joy on knowing that his five-year-old son Dhanush was very much alive and recovering in a private hospital.

Due to a mix-up, Goud had taken the body of four-year-old Dattu, who had died in the accident, and buried it. "He was so devastated that he didn't even bother to check the face of the boy and took the body away late on Thursday," said a Yashodha Hospital official.

The blunder was detected after Dhanush regained consciousness on Friday and blurted out his parents and village names at around 9 am. "We were completely shocked and immediately called Swamy Goud," said a hospital official.

"Under confusion, a parent (Swamy Goud) took away body of another child thinking that it was his son. Swamy Goud (father of Darshan Goud) could not make out his son's body and took another instead. The mistake has been rectified now. Swamy Goud, who was in a state of shock yesterday, after signing the papers took away the body of one Dattu who had actually died in the mishap," a minister told reporters.

Both Dattu and his elder sister had died in the accident and their father Veera Babu took away the body of his daughter, presuming that his son was alive and was being treated in a hospital.

"Later in the night, Veera Babu came to the hospital and verified. He realised that his son was no more and his body was also not there. Both the fathers were asked to contact the district administration and set right the records.

Swamy Goud said "My son's name is Darshan Goud and we fondly call him Dhanush. I had sent him to school yesterday at 8.30 AM. Later, I received a phone call about the accident. I was told my son had died and after that I went to different hospitals searching for my son. I reached a private hospital and saw some bodies of school children."

"I fainted and could not recognise a body that was shown to me as the face of the body was disfigured. Assuming that it was my son's body, I took it and performed the last rites. As I was in a state of shock, I got confused between Dhanush and Dattu. I regret for what has happened," he said.

However, the parents of Dattu are in a state of shock and crest-fallen.

Dattu belonged to Islampur village, while Darshan is from Kishtapur village in Medak district.

It was a twin-tragedy for Veerababu, who lost his 11-year-old daughter Bhuvaneshwari too in the train-bus collision. Dattu, who suffered grievous injuries, was shifted to a private hospital in Secunderabad on Thursday itself. However, he died late in the night.

District authorities swung into action and revenue officials called both parents and informed them about the mix-up. Later, Dattu's body was exhumed and handed over to Veerababu for conducting last rites.

Saturday 26 July 2014

http://www.mid-day.com/articles/case-of-mistaken-identity-dead-boy-comes-alive-on-birthday-in-telangana/15478173

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Hyderabad/Telangana-bus-mishap-Mix-up-brings-joy-to-one-family-devastation-for-another/articleshow/39016459.cms

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Air Algerie wreckage found in Mali


The wreck of an Air Algerie plane that went missing with 110 passengers on board has been found in Mali near the Burkina Faso border, according to a coordinator for the crisis unit in Ouagadougou.

"We have found the Algerian plane. The wreck has been located ... 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the Burkina Faso border" in the Malian region of Gossi, said General Gilbert Diendiere from the Burkina Faso army.

Mr Diendere said the team found the burned out carcass of the plane where the informers had said it might be. They had not found any survivors at the crash site but that, as darkness was falling, they were unable to investigate whether or not there were any who may have been rescued locally.

"The mission found, on the site, pieces of the plane, this team found on the site, sadly, remains of dead bodies. We were not able to evaluate exactly what is the situation as night began to fall and this team has confirmed that it has seen the remains of the plane, totally burned out and scattered on the ground," he said.

There were few clear indications of what might have happened to the aircraft.

Burkino Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedrago said it asked to change route at 2.38am Irish time because of a storm in the area.

"I can confirm that it has crashed," the Algerian official told Reuters, declining to be identified or give any details about what had happened to the aircraft on its way north.

Almost half of the passengers were French citizens, an airline official said.

Niger security sources said planes were flying over the border region with Mali to search for the flight.

France's aviation watchdog said this afternoon that the jet was checked "two or three days ago" and was "in good condition", France's aviation watchdog said.

Patrick Gandil, head of the French civil aviation authority, said the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 "passed through France in Marseille two or three days ago.

"We examined it and we found almost nothing, it was really in good condition," Mr Gandil said.



Algeria's state news agency APS said authorities lost contact with flight AH 5017 an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, but other officials gave differing accounts of the times of contact, adding to confusion about the plane's fate.

Mr Hollande said French troops stationed in Mali as part of France’s operations against Islamist militants in the region had secured the crash site in the Gossi region, close to the Burkina Faso border, southwest of the northern Malian town of Gao.

He said the wreckage was “concentrated in a limited space” and one of the aircraft’s “black box” flight recorders had already been found and was being sent to Gao. Pictures from the crash site showed debris scattered in mainly small pieces over desert-like scrubland. A few larger pieces of twisted debris were also visible.

Swiftair, the private Spanish company that owns the plane, confirmed it had lost contact with the MD-83 operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.

An official for Mali's prime minister's office said contact was lost over the north of the country, around the city of Gao.

Northern Mali was seized by jihadist groups for several months in 2012, and the region has remained unstable despite the Islamists being driven out in a French-led offensive.

A diplomat in the Malian capital Bamako said that the north of the country - which lies on the plane's likely flight path - was struck by a powerful sandstorm overnight.

An Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso told a news conference that all the passengers on the plane were in transit, either for Europe, the Middle East or Canada.

He said the passenger list included 51 French, 26 Burkinabe, 20 Lebanese, four Algerians, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian, one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian and one Romanian.

Lebanese officials said there were at least ten Lebanese citizens on the flight.



A spokeswoman for SEPLA, Spain's pilots union, said the six crew were from Spain. She could not give any further details.

Swiftair said on its website the aircraft took off from Burkina Faso at 2.17am Irish time and was supposed to land in Algiers at 6.10am Irish but never reached its destination.

Burkinabe authorities have set up a crisis unit in Ouagadougou airport to provide information to families.

Issa Saly Maiga, head of Mali's National Civil Aviation Agency, said that a search was under way for the missing flight.

"We do not know if the plane is Malian territory," he told Reuters. "Aviation authorities are mobilised in all the countries concerned - Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria and even Spain."

Aviation websites said the missing aircraft, one of four MD-83s owned by Swiftair, was 18-years-old. The aircraft's two engines are made by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies.

US plane maker McDonnell Douglas, now part of Boeing, stopped producing the MD-80 airliner family in 1999 but it remains in widespread use.

According to British consultancy Flightglobal Ascend, there are 482 MD-80 aircraft in operation, many of them in the United States.

"Boeing is aware of the report (on the missing aircraft). We are awaiting additional information," a spokesman for the planemaker said.

Swiftair has a relatively clean safety record, with five accidents since 1977, two of which caused a total of eight deaths, according to the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation.

Air Algerie's last major accident was in 2003 when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Tamanrasset, killing 102 people.

In February this year, 77 people died when an Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria.

Saturday 26 July 2014

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0724/632783-air-algerie/

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NAMUS offers way to share missing persons data


An estimated 40,000 unidentified dead bodies 10 years ago in the offices of medical examiners and coroners nationwide — many of those officials with limited access to information about missing person cases from across the country — prompted the creation of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a federally funded national repository of people who have vanished. It may be the most comprehensive database available to the public; the FBI refuses to release its own list.

“I think NAMUS is the response to that,” Todd Matthews, a spokesman for the organization, said about the FBI’s decision. “ ‘What can we share with the public?’ We have to find a way to share this information or it’s being lost.”

FBI officials insist their data on missing persons belongs to the individual agencies that submit it, and the FBI is “not at liberty to release it.”

The Chicago Sun-Times also sought from the Illinois State Police information about missing persons reported to the agency since 2003. More than three weeks later, no data has been provided.

However, members of the public can search missing persons cases in NAMUS by name or state at findthemissing.org. The database contained 180 open cases last week in Illinois out of more than 10,200 across the country.

Anyone, including family members and police, can enter a case into the database. But all cases are verified with law enforcement before they appear publicly.

Matthews said coroners and medical examiners trying to identify John and Jane Does could find the national reach of the database particularly helpful.

“If you’re not comparing the missing and unidentified outside your local area, you’re really not going to accomplish a lot,” Matthews said.

Saturday 26 July 2014

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/28679491-418/namus-offers-way-to-share-missing-persons-data.html

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