Days to recover bodies from plane crash site

It could be days before the bodies of six people killed in a plane crash north of Brisbane can be recovered, police say.

The wreckage of a 1934 De Havilland Dragon was found in dense bushland near the town of Imbil in the Sunshine Coast hinterland yesterday, two days after it crashed.

Police and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are leading investigations into the crash as the operation shifts from a rescue to recovery mission.

Chief Superintendent Mike Keating says victim identification officers will visit the crash site today.

They will begin the task of recovering the bodies of pilot Des Porter, 68, his wife Kath, 61, and two Brisbane couples, Les D'evlin, 75, and wife Janice, 61, and John and Carol Dawson, both 63.

Superintendent Keating said the remoteness of the crash site was making recovery efforts difficult.

"That will take a few days I think," he told reporters in Imbil about 160 km north of Brisbane.

"This is a difficult environment, a tough situation and we'll work our way painstakingly through that until we've completed our scene investigation."

Superintendent Keating said the crash site would be guarded from the public and media while investigations were undertaken.

"It's a preserved site," he said.

"We have orders to preserve it and nobody will get anywhere near it other than those that need to from the investigation parties."

Superintenden Keating said police were providing support to the victims' families.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/days-to-recover-bodies-from-plane-crash-site-20121004-270fa.html#ixzz28Ks6aLEq

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Taiwanese victims ID'd in Ha Long Bay ship collision

Five Taiwanese tourists have been confirmed dead in a collision on Wednesday between two ships in Ha Long, a bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

A passenger boat with the five victims on board capsized after colliding with the Dong Phong 2 tourist boat in the afternoon, said Nguyen Van Doc, Chairman of the Quang Ninh People's Committee

The victims have all been identified.

Their bodies have been sent to Bai Chay, a local hospital for necessary formalities.

By the time of the accident, there were 18 tourists on the passenger boat. The survivors were then taken to Cai Lan Hospital after being rescued.

Past incidents

On May 8, 2011, a tour boat numbered QN 2070 with 28 French nationals, one Vietnamese tour guide and 12 sailors aboard sank in Ha Long Bay.

The boat began to sink at around 3:15 pm at a berth situated at Sung Sot Cave, 300 meters away from Ti Top Island, where 12 tourists from 9 nations had died around three months earlier when their tour boat was wrecked.

It cracked after being hit by another. After the incident, many ships nearby immediately came to their rescue.

On February 17, 2011, 12 tourists from 9 nations died after a tourist boat overturned in the same picturesque bay.

There were 26 people aboard the ship at the time, including one captain, four crew members, one tour guide, and 20 foreign tourists.

Local police said the accident was caused by a crack in a wooden board in the engine room, letting sea water in, causing the boat to capsize.

Colonel Vu Chi Thuc, director of the Quang Ninh police said 27-year-old Do Van Thang, a crew member in charge of the engine, forgot to close the valves that allowed water in to cool the machinery on both sides of the boat.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/society/taiwanese-victims-id-d-in-ha-long-bay-ship-collision-1.87853

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Lamma IV passengers 'buried' under falling debris

Detached seats and fallen ceiling panels trapped passengers on the upper deck of the doomed cruiser Lamma IV after it collided with a ferry, turning the cabin into an underwater grave for more than 20 people.

As well as falling on the victims, the debris blocked the only exit from the cabin.

This emerged yesterday as the search for bodies went on and fire services officers checked the wrecked vessel, beached at Nga Kau Wan on Lamma Island.

"Seats broke off from their fixtures and fibreboards dropped from the ceiling," a government source said. "Debris slid on to the victims and buried them."

The victims rolled to the rear end of the upper-deck cabin when the 24-metre boat sank vertically to a depth of 15 metres with only its bow above the surface.

Rescuers had to break windows to pull survivors out of the cabin.

"Divers discovered more than 20 bodies buried under debris on the upper deck. They included children," the source said.

"External wounds such as head and arm injuries were found on the victims. They were not wearing lifejackets."

At least three other bodies were discovered in the lower cabin of the vessel, one entangled in damaged railings.

Divers from the police elite team the "Flying Tigers" and the Fire Services Department found 28 bodies in the wreckage of the Lamma IV.

Another two bodies, trapped under the sunken vessel, surfaced when the boat was raised by three crane barges on Tuesday afternoon.

The 30 victims were among 38 people, including five children, killed in the city's deadliest sea disaster in four decades.

Another source said the Lamma IV, with a nine-square-metre hole ripped in the left rear of its hull, sank within two minutes after the collision.

Yesterday, divers from the Fire Services Department checked the wreckage and the seabed at the site of the collision, but no more bodies were found.

An air and sea search continued yesterday as it remained unclear how many people, if any, were missing. A Marine Department officer said the search was expected to continued for the next two days.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1053346/lamma-iv-passengers-buried-under-falling-debris

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Baldia factory fire: 22 days later, some victims remain unidentified

For many people in Karachi the tragedy of the Baldia factory fire ended soon after. But for some families, every day the disaster reminds them of their loves ones, who haven’t been identified or worse, found yet.

Twenty-two days after the inferno at Ali Enterprises where 258 workers were burnt alive, 39 bodies are still unrecognisable, unidentified and unclaimed at the Edhi morgue at Sohrab Goth.

On Wednesday, trade unionists and family members of the victims called on the government to issue the DNA reports of the unidentified victims immediately or they would set up a protest camp outside the press club.

“For the past 22 days, the families have been struggling to find the bodies, but neither the hospitals nor any institution is helping them,” said Nasir Mansoor, the deputy general secretary of National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan, while speaking at a news conference along with the bereaved family members.

In the first week after the tragedy, the DNA samples of 73 relatives of the victims were taken and the families were told to wait for 15 days for the results. “The authorities have extended the date by another 15 days without any reason, which has disturbed the families,” Mansoor added.

He also questioned the sampling of 73 people when there were only 39 bodies at the morgue. “Where are the rest of the 34 bodies?”

The prime minister, a private company and Nawaz Sharif had announced compensation packages for the heirs of all those who died in the fire but some families have still not received any support. More than 35 people were injured in the inferno that rendered about 1,300 people jobless. “They have not been compensated and are now starving,” the trade unionist claimed.

The family members should also be heard by the tribunal investigating the case because they know better about their family members who were burnt to ashes, Mansoor suggested.

Besides the factory owners, the three ruling parties – Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami National Party – are equally responsible for the tragedy, he alleged. “Ali Enterprises prepared products for a German company named KIK, which is also responsible for the workers deaths and should help their families,” he added.

Like many others, Sohrab Khalid is also waiting for the DNA result. His brother Amer Aftab was one of the victims of the factory fire but his body hasn’t been found yet.

“The hospital authorities took a DNA sample from my mother and now she is waiting to see her son for the last time,” Khalid said while taking to The Express Tribune. “We have been going from hospital to hospital and from one police station to another, but our DNA sample has not matched with any of the bodies.”

The chief mechanic of the garment factory, Imran, also died in the fire. His wife had to ask Imran’s brother to come to Karachi from Punjab to give his DNA sample, as the authorities refused to take the DNA samples of their son.

“I have no idea where to go and what to do to find my husband. I want to see him to make sure that he is dead,” she said at the press conference.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/446623/baldia-factory-fire-22-days-later-some-victims-remain-unidentified/

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11 bodies found in the landslide that took place in Harkate Haspokhari Area of Mechi Highway

ILAM, OCTOBER 3 - Eleven amongst the many bodies that had gone missing in the landslide that took place in Harkate Haspokhari Area of Mechi Highway have been discovered today. The police informed that ten bodies have been identified so far. The bodies identified today are those of Mandira Pradhan and Padam Pradhan of Samalbung-1, Ilaam, and Dawa Norbu Sherpa, Arati Lama, Namgyal Bhutia and Choden Bhutia all from Sukhia, India.

One body found today however has not been identified yet while three people are still missing. Five vehicles plying on the highway were buried in the landslide on Monday. Elsewhere, two people who had gone missing in the landslide that occurred in Jyamire of Dhupu VDC in Sankhuwasabha have been found dead.

The police have informed that the bodies of Dilmaya Rai and Krishna Ghimire who had gone missing were found today. Four members of a same family and a guest were killed when a house belonging to Chakra Bahadur Rai at Dhupu-8, Jyamire was buried in a landslide on Monday night.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://imagechannels.com/news/details/19234/11-bodies-found-in-the-landslide-that-took-place-in-Harkate-Haspokhari-Area-of-Mechi-Highway

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landslide buries primary school

A landslide has buried 18 children and one adult in a mountainous area of south-western China that was hit by earthquakes and flooding a month ago, state media have reported.

Chinese officials said the Youfang primary school collapsed when the landslide struck the village of Zhenhe in Yiliang county, Yunnan province, at around 8am on Thursday morning. Eighteen students are thought to have been inside.

An adult was also trapped when two houses in the village were toppled, according to the statement published on the county website.

State news agency Xinhua said a family of three managed to escape. It added that other residents had been evacuated from the area. An official from the county told Associated Press on Thursday that rescuers had arrived at the village, a three-hour drive from the county seat.

The students at the Youfang Primary School would not normally have been in school this week as China is on a week-long national holiday. But Li Zhong, head of the county education bureau, told the China News Service they were making up for classes suspended after two earthquakes hit the area in early September.

But they were making up for lost time caused by disruptions stemming from two September 7 earthquakes that struck Yiliang county where Zhenhe is located, killing 81 people and leaving hundreds injured.

Web users immediately raised questions about the decision to have the children back in the schools.

The safety of school pupils is a sensitive issue after thousands of students died when an 8.0-magnitude tremor in 2008 rocked Sichuan province in southwestern China and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu.

Many schools collapsed in the 2008 quake, which killed more than 80,000 people in total.

This led to accusations that corner-cutting in construction projects and possibly corruption led to shoddy buildings, especially as many buildings nearby such schools held firm.

That disaster, which saw shockwaves of 5.7 and 5.6 magnitude, claimed 81 lives and injured 800 people in Yiliang and neighbouring areas. It was followed by torrential rain that triggered floods and mud and rockslides through the area — damaging roads and relocation sites for emergency services.

The central government said at the time it had allocated 1bn yuan for disaster relief in the county and premier Wen Jiabao visited to inspect rescue work.

Local government officials moved local residents to safer ground after the disaster and dispatched rescue teams to the area, it added.

Yiliang county was one of the areas worst-hit by the two 5.6-magnitude earthquakes last month. Last month's quakes left 820 people injured and 201,000 displaced.

In the wake of that disaster, domestic media said authorities should emphasise safety and sustainability in future developments.

Despite decades of rapidly improving living standards, China remains prone to natural disasters such as floods, quakes, and landslides, with heavy loss of life.

Thursday 4 October 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/04/china-landslide-buries-primary-school

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