INS Sindhurakshak tragedy: Navy faces its dead; identifying bodies a challenging task

After naval divers fished out what remained of five of the 18 sailors aboard the submarine INS Sindhurakshak, which exploded at naval dockyard on Wednesday, the process to identify them began yesterday.

The DNA extracted from the femurs and teeth of the bodies will be matched with that of the blood samples taken from relatives of all the 18 sailors who were on board the submarine. And unless there is a mismatch in the sampling, the remains will be preserved at the morgue of Naval hospital INHS Asvini.

Today, the samples will be sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory, Kalina for DNA matching.

A forensic scientist from the lab confirmed receiving a phone call from the Navy. “The officer made inquiries about the process of sending the samples. Only after we get the samples will we be able to ascertain the time required for conducting the tests.”

The bodies were first taken to the naval hospital, where their X-rays were taken. At around 6 pm, two bodies were sent to JJ Postmortem Center. A team of forensic surgeons headed by Dr Sudhir Nanandkar, head of department, forensic medicine, Grant Medical College, conducted the autopsies that lasted for over two hours. Four doctors from INHS Asvini were present for the procedures, which were recorded.

“After the explosion, the sea water in the radius of two kilometers had heated up at very high temperatures,” said a naval officer requesting anonymity.

Surgeons who conducted the autopsy said that both the bodies were first exposed to high temperature and, immediately after, to hot water. This was evident from the fact that the bodies were not completely charred: the burnt skin had peeled off from the face, hands and legs, baring the bones underneath.

However, a few peripheral body parts like the arms, feet and the ears in some bodies were missing,” said the doctor.

Since the bodies had been lying in seawater for more than 48 hours, they did not show any sign of decomposition. The internal organs were found intact. The surgeons suspect that death was instantaneous in both cases, right after the blasts.

After extracting samples for DNA sampling, the surgeons handed back the bodies to the Cuffe Parade police, who took them to the mortuary at the naval hospital.

Around 9.45 pm, two more bodies were brought for autopsy. Surgeons pointed out that these bodies were similarly charred beyond recognition. The autopsy went on until after 11 pm and then the bodies were handed over to the Navy.

Additional Commissioner of Police (south region) Krishna Prakash said, “The Cuffe Parade police were informed by the INHS Asvini sergeant surgeon Dr Gopal Singh Rajput who is also the complainant. After autopsy, these two bodies will also be handed over to the Navy.”

The cause of death for all four bodies was ascertained to be burn injuries with a history of drowning.

Doctors said that the bodies of deceased were charred beyond recognition and that an x-ray of the bones was conducted to ascertain if shrapnel was embedded in the remains.

The DNA analysis results are expected to arrive from the laboratory in seven to ten days. The tests are being expedited due to the urgency of the issue.

Saturday 17 August 2013

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2013/aug/170813-navy-faces-its-dead-identifying-bodies-a-challenging-task.htm

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/1875506/report-drowning-burns-caused-death-says-autopsy-report

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Releasing bodies of Lac-Megantic disaster to families delayed as coroner investigations continue

The Quebec coroner's office has warned families that it could be weeks before the bodies of the victims of the Lac-Megantic, Que., disaster are released for proper funerals.

Only four victims have so far had funerals, over one month since the train disaster killed 47 people in the small Quebec town of 6,000.

The explosions that followed the train derailment melted oil tankers and pulverized city blocks. The Quebec coroner's office spokeswoman warned at the time that the conditions of the bodies would reflect the intensity of the flames.

Guilbault told families this week that although the coroner's office didn't want to make false promises, the large majority of the bodies will likely be released before Christmas.

"We can't release the bodies right away because it could compromise the chances of identifying others," she explained.

So far, 42 bodies have been found in the rubble of Lac-Megantic's downtown. Recovery teams are still looking for the remains of five people. Thirty-eight of the 42 bodies have been identified.

Fewer than 10 bodies have been released to families.

Only three more funerals are planned for the coming weeks.

"The task is very complex," said Guilbault. However, she said that when a body is ready to be released, "the family is informed within 15 minutes."



Pascal Charest, who lost his partner and two daughters in the tragedy, told QMI Agency he will wait for all three bodies before holding a ceremony. "Of course we will wait," he said. "They left together and they will be buried together."

Saturday 17 August 2013

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/16/releasing-bodies-of-lac-megantic-disaster-to-families-delayed-as-coroner-investigations-continue

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First photo of Iwoto WW2 mass grave found

A photograph of a mass grave for Japanese soldiers who died on Iwoto island was found at the U.S. National Archives, along with a record of 12 soldiers who died while they were held as prisoners of war, it has been learned.

This is the first time that a picture of a burial place on Iwoto for members of the Japanese Imperial Army has been comfirmed. The island, formerly known as Iwojima, was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of World War II.

The record of the 12 Japanese POWs was created by U.S. forces in 1951. It contains each man’s name, military rank, POW number, date and cause of death, and burial place.

The remains of about 12,000 Japanese soldiers have yet to be found on the island. “The records are valuable materials that could contribute greatly to ongoing efforts to recover soldiers’ remains,” a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official said.

The new historical data were discovered by Tokyo-based private research firm Nichimy Corp. Under contract with the ministry, Nichimy collected and examined U.S.-held records about Japanese soldiers believed to have died on the island at the archives and other places for four years through fiscal 2012.

Nichimy found the list and photo in July, after its contract with the ministry had ended.

According to a written explanation kept with the picture, the photo was taken by the U.S. Army in November 1946. The explanation reads “Japanese...are buried on [sic] this well-kept plot of ground on the island of Iwo Jima.”

There is an area surrounded by a fence in the upper part of the picture. According to the ministry, previously discovered records indicate that the area is a mass grave located on the western side of a runway belonging to the Maritime Self-Defense Forces’ Iwoto Air Station.

U.S. military documents found in 2010 at the archives say about 2,000 bodies were buried at the site. Subsequent efforts by the ministry turned up the remains of 1,143 soldiers.

The ministry hopes to speed up its work to recover the still-undiscovered remains, using the landscape and the road in the picture as clues to identify the location of the mass grave, a ministry official said. After the ministry began studying documents kept by U.S. forces in 2009, it found records that about 200 Japanese soldiers were buried at Mt. Suribachi on the island. Other documents led to the locations of a field hospital and bunkers where soldiers’ bodies could have been buried.

Based on these findings, the ministry collected the remains of 822 Japanese soldiers in fiscal 2010, about 16 times the number in the previous year. It found the remains of 344 soldiers in fiscal 2011 and of 266 in fiscal 2012.

The U.S. military landed on the island in February 1945 and fought a fierce ground battle with Japanese forces for more than a month through March. About 22,000 Japanese soldiers died.

Saturday 17 August 2013

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000463848

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13 killed in Nadiad accident

Thirteen persons were killed and one was seriously injured when an over loaded autorickshaw collided with a state transport bus near Nadiad town on Friday.

The accident took place near Andhaj village on Nadiad-Mahemdabad road, nearly seven kilometres from Nadiad.

Police inspector D S Pundiya of Nadiad rural police told TOI, "The bus was on way to Ahmedabad from Pavagadh. Ten of the victims died on the spot, while three succumbed to their injuries while being treated. The bodies were taken to Nadiad Civil Hospital for postmortem." The deceased include the autorickshaw driver.

All the passengers killed were from Devki-Vansol village of Mahemdabad taluka of Kheda district. A pall of gloom descended over the village when the residents came to know about the accident. A large number of villagers rushed to the accident spot despite heavy rain.

Those who died on the spot were identified as Yash Barot (10), Alpesh Barot (35), Sunil Rathod (17), Raoji Parmar (40), Dinesh Parmar (25), Mangal Parmar (24), Manu Parmar (34), Thakore Vaghela (25), Raiji Jhala (30) and Arvind Parmar (30). Those who died while being treated were Saroj Parmar (30), Pratap Parmar (20) and Bhupendra Parmar (34).

The local residents are agitated over a large number of autorickshaws plying on the roads carrying far more passengers than their actual capacity, while the authorities turn a blind eye.

These autorickshaw drivers put the lives of passengers at risk daily.

Saturday 17 August 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/13-killed-in-Nadiad-accident/articleshow/21867341.cms

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Military men who survived a 1952 bus crash crawled through ‘hell’ to save lives

Some of the soldiers and airmen who boarded a Greyhound bus in Waco in the wee hours of Monday, Aug. 4, 1952, were probably weary from their weekend leaves and settled into their seats for a nap on the way to San Antonio.

And on a northbound bus south of Waco on U.S. Highway 81, lit by a full moon, were a few military men as well, perhaps dreaming of their arrival in Dallas to the arms of wives and sweethearts.

The two buses filled with business travelers and vacationers, as well as these airmen and soldiers, collided just before dawn, about 7 miles south of Waco, in a transportation tragedy that made the record books in that era.

A total of 28 people died in the impact that scattered bodies across the highway and ditches, or in the ensuing inferno of exploding gas tanks. That 25 passengers survived what the first police officiers on the scene termed “a vision of Hades” was deemed a miracle by many, according to Waco Tribune-Herald archived stories, which initially reported that 29 people were killed.

Several of those who escaped with their lives credited some of the military men with keeping cool heads in the ghastly chaos to guide them out of the deathtrap.

Milburn Berry Herring, 24, a young father who had recently left the employ of the Jones Fine Bread Co. of Waco as a shipment driver, was at the wheel of the northbound Greyhound.

Helming the southbound coach was B.E. “Billy” Malone, 23, also a Waco resident and a driver with six months experience.

Investigators with the Interstate Commerce Commission later concluded that Herring, who had been on the job just five days at the time of the collision, likely had dozed off just north of Lorena when he crossed the center line to strike Malone’s vehicle head-on.

Regulators noted that Herring already had worked several cross-state runs in his first four days at work for Greyhound.

One of Malone’s passengers, Leonor Morales Zamudio, had shouted “Look out!” at the glaring oncoming headlights, but it was too late. She and her new husband, long-time Elite Café cook Hilario Zamudio, were killed in the collision, according to Tribune-Herald archives.

Leonor’s daughter, Matilda Ledesma, 10, was trapped in the wreckage but was freed by a young black soldier, as was a drive-in waitress named Dora Mae Athey Daniels, a 17-year-old bride from Corpus Christi who grew up in Waco.

Reba Campbell, a reporter for the Waco Times-Herald, wrote:

“In all the burning Hell, an unknown hero, a Negro soldier, returned time and time again to the burning buses and knocked out windows to drag passengers to safety.”

Campbell reported that several survivors lauded the courage of their rescuer, who had initially been thrown free but chose to continue crawling through the flames to aid strangers.

Rhonda Dandridge, of Durham, N.C., said she believes the grandfather she never met was one of those unrecognized heroes of that terrible day.

She said she grew up as a child listening to the whispered conversations in the next room about the heroic black military man lauded in the media in 1952 for saving several lives.

Dandridge’s mother was just a toddler when Staff Sgt. Emual Henry Robinson spent weekend leaves in San Antonio, but rode the Greyhound back to James Connally Air Force Base, where he was assigned to the 65th Medical Squadron, 3565 Medical Group.

Her grandfather, a bookish fellow known in the family as “Snooks,” was on the northbound bus, returning to his duty station.

But he never reported in, his commanders told the newspaper, and it took military forensic specialists several days to identify his remains.

“I never got the chance to meet him, because of what he did that day,” Dandridge said in a recent telephone interview. “But I want people to know there was a name to go with that story.” The Times-Herald reported on several heroes in the days after the tragedy as their stories became better known:



An Air Force sergeant named Shelton; Airman 3rd class Joe Crutchfield, 19;

PFC Charles R. Moncrief, 21, of Midland; and,

Leslie Tyler, a 27-year-old waiter who worked at the Green Tree Café.

The remains of the dead sent to the Compton Funeral Home of Waco for identification.

The wreckage was hauled to the yard of the (now defunct) Mosley Machinery Co.

Saturday 17 August 2013

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/waco_history/military-men-who-survived-a-bus-crash-crawled-through-hell/article_9c5094bb-21e8-5282-9693-8349375f6a5b.html?mode=image&photo=0

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Autopsies performed on five submarine sailors' bodies

Doctors at Sir J.J. Hospital have finished performing autopsies on the bodies of five sailors recovered from the sunken submarine INS Sindhurakshak, hospital sources said.

The bodies were brought to the hospital as the naval hospital INHS Ashvini does not have facilities to conduct autopsies.

Besides the autopsy to determine the causes of death, DNA samples have been taken and dental identification carried out to identify the victims.

Hospital officials said the bodies were brought in a completely charred state though some tissues were intact.

Orthopaedic x-rays carried out to ascertain shrapnel or other foreign bodies embedded on the victims have proved negative.

Prima facie, doctors have concluded death due to burning, asphyxiation and drowning thought the exact cause and timing of death of each will be determined only at a later stage.

The identities of the victims shall be clear after forensic experts give the DNA and dental record reports in the next few days.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy is under pressure to expedite the work of recovering the remaining 13 missing sailors.

After five bodies were recovered till Friday evening, the naval team of divers is engaged in a round-the-clock operation to find the others.

The chances of finding any survivor have been ruled out from the deep sea fighter vessel which exploded, caught fire and then sank within six hours early Wednesday in the Mumbai naval harbour.

"The state of (the three recovered bodies) and conditions within the submarine leads to the firm conclusion that finding any surviving personnel within the submarine is unlikely," the Indian Navy said in a statement Friday afternoon.

"The damage and destruction within the submarine around the control room area indicates that the feasibility of locating bodies in the forward part of the submarine is also very remote as the explosion and very high temperatures, which melted steel within, would have incinerated the bodies too," the statement added.

However, the Indian Navy is hopeful that some of the armaments inside the deep sea fighter vessel, stored on the rear side, may be recovered undamaged as the flames did not completely gut that portion of the submarine.

The distraught families of all the 18 missing personnel have been contacted "and are being provided regular updates through constant interaction" by the Family Cell headed by a rear admiral and members of the Navy Wives Welfare Association.

Saturday 17 August 2013

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/autopsies-performed-on-five-submarine-sailors-bodies-113081700902_1.html

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Over one hundred missing and thirty-one dead in Philippines Thomas Aquinas ferry disaster

At least 31 people have died 171 are missing after an overnight collision between a ferry and a cargo vessel near the central Philippine port of Cebu.

The collision sent ferry passengers jumping into the ocean and left many others trapped. At least 28 were confirmed dead.

The captain of the MV Thomas Aquinas ferry, which was approaching the port late on Friday, ordered the ship abandoned when it began listing and then sank just minutes after colliding with the MV Sulpicio Express, according to local coast guards.

The 138-metre long ferry carried 752 passengers, including children, and 118 crew members, of which 629 have been recued.

Coast guard chief Commander Weniel Azcuna said that 171 people are still missing, some of them possibly trapped inside the ship that sank in waters about 33 metres deep off Talisay city in Cebu province, approximately 350 miles south of the capital Manila.

Navy divers recovered at least four more bodies from the underwater wreck early Saturday. Bodies were seend reportedly coated with fuel and oil that spilled from the ferry.

"There could be more bodies there, but there were ropes inside that our divers could get entangled in," Tuason said.

An investigation will begin after the rescue operation, the coast guard said.

Accidents at sea are fairly common in the Philippine archipelago due to frequent storms, badly maintained boats and weak enforcement of safety regulations.

In 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the Philippines, killing more than 4,341 people in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.

In 2008, the ferry MV Princess of the Stars capsized during a typhoon in the central Philippines, killing nearly 800 people.

Saturday 17 August 2013

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/over-one-hundred-missing-and-thirtyone-dead-in-philippines-thomas-aquinas-ferry-disaster-8772315.html

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