Investigators won’t conduct autopsies on most of the bodies recovered from the AirAsia airliner that crashed into the Java Sea, paying mind to cultural sensibilities regarding respect for the dead in this largely conservative, Muslim nation.
Doctors will conduct autopsies on the plane’s crew to detect any possible presence of toxic agents, banned drugs or alcohol. The bodies of foreign nationals will also undergo autopsy in line with international rules.
Officials in Surabaya said Saturday that a “sampling” of passengers on the flight would also undergo autopsies but declined to comment further on how many and which passengers they would be.
For Indonesians on Flight 8501, an autopsy can be conducted only if written consent is obtained from relatives or if police open a criminal investigation in which the autopsy is needed as part of evidence, Dr. Anton Castilani, the director of Indonesia’s Disaster Victims Identification unit, said Saturday.
One autopsy had been completed as of Saturday, according to DVI officials, who declined to comment on the cause of death.
Many Indonesians are reluctant to grant permission for an autopsy, even if it could provide insight into a relative’s final moments. Muslims, in particular, prefer that the deceased are buried as soon as possible after recovery.
Indonesia normally doesn’t conduct autopsies on victims of air or ferry disasters, Dr. Castilani told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.
“There are cultural issues,” Dr. Castilani said. “People refuse to allow autopsies.”
Jonathan Galaviz, partner at Global Market Advisors and an aviation expert, said that autopsies on passengers aren’t mandatory in the U.S. and Europe and wouldn’t be standard procedures in many jurisdictions.
While autopsies may indicate whether a passenger was likely killed on impact or drowned, the more relevant data points on how the plane went down will come from the analysis of the black boxes.
“For most of the passengers, the cause of death is the crash and the data from the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder will most certainly reveal the cause of the crash,” Mr. Galaviz said.
In the U.S., autopsy isn't mandatory for the crew, Mr. Galaviz said. Instead, blood samples need to be taken from their bodies to rule out drugs and alcohol.
“An autopsy would be a very normal thing as part of a suspicious or unexpected death like this” though religious considerations can be taken into account, said Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at Cranfield University in the U.K. The pathological assessments can also become important during later litigation in determining payouts, he said.
Indonesian police haven’t classified the probe into the crash as a criminal investigation, said Dr. Castilani, who is both a senior police superintendent and a medical doctor. He is leading the effort to identify victims after their bodies are recovered at sea and carried out similar work in the 2002 Bali terror bombings.
For Dr. Castilani, physical examination of the bodies can yield clues and help analyze what happened.
“As the police doctor, you should have your own mind if you find something suspicious,” Dr. Castilani said.
By Saturday, 30 bodies had been recovered, the majority of them “mostly intact,” Dr. Castilani said. He was unwilling to speculate on what conclusions can be drawn from examinations so far.
The identification process is under way in Surabaya, the city on eastern Java island where the flight to Singapore originated. By Saturday afternoon, six bodies sent to the forensics teams had been identified.
Budi Sampurna, forensics professor at the University of Indonesia, who is assisting with the identification, said autopsies may be difficult to conduct “because the bodies are in water for too long, and signs would have been gone.”
Mr. Sampurna said that identification is the priority for the forensics teams.
Sunday 4 January 2014
http://www.wsj.com/articles/many-bodies-of-airasia-passengers-wont-be-autopsied-officials-say-1420307128
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