Coroners with the National Police’s victim-identification unit have identified 24 out of the 40 bodies recovered from the wreckage of Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ 8501, police said on Thursday.
The 24 identified bodies, 11 women and 13 men, have been returned to their families, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Ronny F. Sompie said.
Ronny said police hoped to make positive identifications of 15 more victims on Thursday, which would bring the total to 39.
It was unclear on Thursday afternoon when the most recently recovered victim would be identified. Another body, the 40th to be recovered from the wreck of the crashed plane, was brought to the Surabaya hospital on Thursday afternoon.
Multinational DVI team
As more bodies are recovered from the AirAsia plane crash, experts from various countries are working together in Surabaya to help identify them before returning the bodies to their respective families.
The 28-member multinational Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team comprises experts from Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Between them is a wide range of forensic expertise in DNA tracing, dental identification and pathology.
The members not only observe and take part in the identification of bodies but also attend the reconciliation meeting where the inspection of bodies is verified with dental records, fingerprints, family DNA and physical features.
But as bodies in sea water decompose faster, fingerprints and physical features become even more degraded for identification. Anton Castilani, executive director of Indonesia National Police's DVI Unit, said: "We are trying to get DNA samples of the closest next-of-kin in order to help in the identification and verification process."
The multinational team are no stranger to one another. Frank Rayner, Australian Federal Police liaison officer, said: "AFP (Australian Federal Police) has got a long relationship with their colleagues in the IP (Identity Preservation) and DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) area. The DVI members will be able to not only participate in the procedure but also observe the techniques of the IP, and also our colleagues from Singapore."
Most of them took part in the annual International Disaster Victim Identification workshop, which focuses on international cooperation in response to natural and man-made disasters, particularly in the ASEAN region.
Anton Castilani said: "We came from the same training centre. This was in Indonesia at the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation where we used to run our DVI programmes, especially for international programmes. This event is more like a sharing of knowledge here."
The team is usually deployed for two to three weeks on assignment.
There are still at least 15 bodies placed in cold storage that need to be identified but authorities say verifying bodies needs time and accuracy is of utmost importance. There are hopes that the multinational team's participation can help speed up the identification of bodies before they are returned to their families.
Friday 9 January 2015
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/police-coroners-aim-identify-15-airasia-crash-victims-today/
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/multinational-dvi-team-at/1577510.html
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