Identification of Sukhoi crash victims may take months

While the evacuation of Sukhoi Superjet-100 crash victims is still underway, the victim`s identification may take months because many of their bodies are no longer intact, head of the police medical and health center (Pukdokkes) Senior Commission Anton Castilani told the press at the police hospital in East Jakarta Saturday. Anton said the identification process is like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle and he compared it also with the boat accident in Trenggalek in which identification of the victims took as long as five months. The police team of the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) has begun with identifying the contents of four body bags at the police hospital including identifying body parts, describing and making notes of special features of the victims. The return of the victims to their families cannot be done in a too short period because the team is still completing the identification process. Anton also cannot say how long it would take to complete the identification process, because DNA examination itself would take another two weeks, as it is also necessary to compare ante mortem data with post mortem data. "I cannot promise anything, because it is still too long," he said. The DVI team is making the comparisons such as by finger print data, teeth, DNA, physical/medical marks and the belongings of the victims. Anton said the Russian government has also promised to send a DNA expert to help the identification process, and universities and domestic agencies like University of Indonesia, Airlangga University, Bradijaya University, Eijkman Institute (Bandung) and a team of doctors from Banten will also help the identification process. Sunday 13 May 2012