Interpol in Indonesia to assist identification of QZ8501 victims

Interpol on Wednesday (Jan 14) visited AirAsia's Crisis Centre in Surabaya, East Java, to support the multi-national Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team that has been tasked to identify the bodies of flight QZ8501, and to ensure all procedures follow internationally recognised DVI standards.

Two Interpol officials have met the East Java Police Chief and the Head of the East Java DVI unit in Surabaya.

Interpol's DVI official Simon Djirovski was delighted that DVI teams from five countries have worked together with Indonesia to identify the bodies and that all DVI procedures have followed international standards.

He pointed out the difficulty in search and recovery operations at sea and said families needed to be aware of the bitter reality. "Normally the people are aware about it. This is specific disaster is a very bad disaster. With the situation like this, there is absolutely no possibility that all bodies will be recovered,” said Djidrovski.

Djidrovski said that Search and Rescue teams were doing their best to find as many bodies as possible and added that Indonesia has gone a long way in developing its Disaster Victim Identification Unit.

Interpol's DVI community consists of 190 countries including Indonesia. Indonesia will become a member of Interpol's steering committee next month, along with 29 other countries.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/interpol-in-indonesia-to/1590710.html

India: Legislative sanction required for DNA data bank of unidentified bodies

The Centre has told Supreme Court that "legislative sanction" is required for establishment of a DNA profiles data bank which will help to identify the dead bodies which are unidentified.

Filing an affidavit in response to a PIL, Union Science and Technology ministry said the draft Human DNA Profiling Bill is ready and the same is likely to be introduced in the budget session.

The government said an expert committee was set up to look into various issues including privacy concerns. After threadbare discussion by the members, the committee has recommended for creation of DNA data bank while opined that the issues can be addressed after the enactment of law.

"The DNA Profiling Bill will provide legislative sanction for the government to formulate, approve and implement the rules and regulations for creation, maintenance and operation of the DNA data bank. The protocols for DNA profiling by the government would ensure appropriate use of biological samples and develop infrastructure as well as protocols across all states in the country for recording details of unidentified deceased individuals, collection storage and transport of biological samples to the laboratory of DNA analysis...."

"The effective operationlisation of DNA profiling activities need necessary statutory backing in the shape of provisions of a Parliament enacted law and regulations which would be framed by DNA Profiling Board once the bill is enacted," the government said.

According to the affidavit, after the recommendation of the experts committee, the draft bill was modified and comments were received from various ministries and also from different departments. Now the revised draft bill be submitted in the budget session of Parliament after the union cabinet's approval.

Earlier, the government had cited privacy concerns, lack of experts and handful laboratories as the prime reasons for not being able to push the Bill.

The apex court had in July last year had asked the Centre to create a DNA data bank on a plea by NGO Lokniti Foundation that establishment of identity was an essential feature of individual dignity and the government must resort to modern scientific methods.

The government stated that there was requirement of large number of trained personnel and adequate number of scientific laboratories with technicians.

The country has only 30 to 40 DNA experts against an estimated requirement of around 800 technical examiners for its 1,200 million population. And, each test costs Rs 20,000 and the estimated cost of identifying 40,000 bodies would be Rs 80crore every year, in addition to the remuneration of the examiners and support staff.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-centre-says-its-needs-legislative-sanction-to-dna-data-bank-2052323

Ten dead as Texas prison bus collides with train

At least 10 people have been killed after a bus carrying prisoners lost control on an icy motorway and collided with a train in Texas, officials say.

Ector County Sheriff Mark Donaldson said the bus careened off an Interstate 20 overpass and landed on train tracks west of Odessa. A freight train then struck the bus, he said.

The bus was traveling from the Middleton Unit in Abilene to the Sanchez Unit in El Paso when it was involved in the accident at about 7:30 a.m., state prison officials said.

Two correctional officers and eight inmates died in the crash, according to state officials, and one staff member and four other inmates were taken to the Medical Center in Odessa where a spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times that four were critical and one was in serious condition.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing.

Images from the scene showed that the white prison bus, crumpled with heavy damage to its top and undercarriage, came to rest on its side.

“It's with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of those killed and injured this morning in a tragic accident,” said Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “Their loved ones will be in our thoughts and prayers.”

The Union Pacific freight train was traveling from Los Angeles to Marion, Ark., with 58 cars and four locomotives, Mark Davis, a railroad spokesman told The Times.

Two employees on the freight train were uninjured, he said.

Carrying parcels and packages, the train remained at the accident site while the investigation was being carried out.

The railroad will be sending people to inspect the damage and the track, according to Davis.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30821835

Sindh High Court urges to complete DNA identification of bus accident victims expeditiously

The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the Sindh chief secretary on Wednesday to ensure DNA identification of the bus accident victims expeditiously.

SHC Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, who headed a division bench, also issued notices to the home secretary, secretary Regional Transport Authority (RTA), IG Sindh, DIG traffic, National Highway Authority (NHA) director general and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administrator to submit detailed and comprehensive reports on the traffic accident on Superhighway that claimed over 60 lives.

The court further directed the chief secretary to ensure that the samples for DNA test are obtained and sent to the relevant DNA testing labs in Islamabad and Lahore as early as possible and pursue the matter vigorously so that the reports may be obtained at the earliest.

It instructed the authorities to explain possible cause of the accident and suggest ways and measures to prevent such occurrences in future. The bench had taken up a constitutional petition seeking probe into cause of the tragedy and action against those responsible for it. It set January 23 for next hearing.

A day before Chief Justice Baqar had converted into constitutional petition a letter addressed to him by an NGO, Justice Helpline, president Advocate Nadeem Shaikh and a relative of a bereaved lawyer family.

In the letter, it was stated that an advocate Muhammad Yasin Ahmed and his family travelling in ill-fated bus lost their lives and their burnt bodies were beyond identification.

Advocate Nadeem said fire tenders of Pakistan Steel Mill were in close proximity to the place of accident but its administration did not render any assistance to extinguish fire. The cattle colony fire station as per routine remained open from 9am to at 5pm, adding it was very strange that fire department was negligent about that fact and there was no check on their activities by the provincial government.

He said bereaved families were waiting for the charred bodies of their relatives lying at the mortuary due to DNA identification but the authorities delaying the matter.

He prayed that direction be given to the government to make payment of reasonable compensation to the legal heirs of victims.

At least 62 people, including women and children, were today when their overcrowded bus collided head-on with a speeding oil tanker on January 12, 2015 sparking a major fire in southern Pakistan, in the deadliest road accident to hit the country in recent times.

The deadly accident occurred in the early hours on the Super Highway about 50 kms from here in Sindh province as the bus was travelling from Karachi to Shikarpur, Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui said.

The overcrowded bus, carrying around 80 people with some sitting on its roof, collided with an oil tanker coming from the opposite direction and wrong side of the road.

Deputy Executive Director and In-charge, Emergency and Accident Department, Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre, Dr Seemien Jamali said the number of dead may be higher than 60 as most of them are completely burnt and stuck to each other. She specifically referred to the bodies of at least six children stuck to women who may have been their mothers and said under the circumstances exact number of dead can not be immediately ascertained and DNA test is needed for their identification.

“Most of the bodies are beyond recognition and it is also impossible to separate the remains,” said the senior doctor mentioning that dead and injured also include women and children. “They are beyond recognition and can only be identified by DNA test,” she reiterated. It may be mentioned that a few passengers escaped unhurt as they managed to jump off the coach immediately and later the coach was overcrowded, a common practice among local public transport operators in the absence of safety regulations. They also confirmed that the vehicle itself was also not well maintained with no provision to handle any mishap, including fire extinguisher or essential first aid.

Medico Legal Department of Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre has asked the immediate family members of Saturday’s National Highway accident victims to provide with their blood samples so as to help in identification of the charred bodies. Deputy Executive Director of the hospital, Dr Seemien Jamali talking to APP said that sample collection of each of the 59 charred body is also in process for providing them to police. “Since normally required blood sample is simply not possible with these badly mutilated bodies therefore we have to collect parts as essential samples,” she said in reply to a question. Dr Seemien Jamali said the exercise would be completed by Sunday evening and these would be handed to the police authorities to be despatched to National Forensic Laboratory Centre, Islamabad and ascertain exact identity of those dead, easing the important legal formalities, including handing over of bodies to their respective families. In reply to a question, she said JPMC doctors and nurses serving at its medico legal department are also engaged in collecting blood samples from bereaved family members and those claiming to be the legal heirs of the dead for further facilitation of the process.

Dr Jamali said that bodies would be placed at Edhi Welfare Trust’s mortuary till all legal formalities are completed and these are collected by their respective heirs. To another query, Dr Jamali said at the moment even the gender of these bodies could not be ascertained.

Initial reports said the tanker was travelling on the wrong side of the road along a dilapidated stretch of highway, police said. It was the second crash involving major loss of life in Sindh province in less than three months. Authorities transferred the remains to a local morgue after taking samples for DNA testing in order to identify them. Doctor Semi Jamali at Karachi’s Jinnah hospital said another four passengers with minor injuries have been discharged.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/01/14/city/karachi/shc-directs-sc-to-complete-dna-identification-of-bus-accident-victims-expeditiously/

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/sindh/12-Jan-2015/bus-hits-oil-tanker-in-karachi-67-burnt-beyond-recognition

100 bodies recovered from Ganga, DNA samples collected

Curiosity is brewing with recovery of 50 more bodies from river Ganga in Unnao on Wednesday, taking the number of such recoveries over the last few days to 100 and prompting the Centre to ask Uttar Pradesh government what was happening. While about 30 bodies were recovered on Tuesday, 50 more were found today from the river Ganga in Safipur area of Unnao district.

So far 80 bodies have been taken out from the river near Pariyar ghat, District Magistrate Saumya Agarwal said. She said the exact number of the recoveries could not be confirmed as bodies were still being recovered. Unofficially, the body count is said to be more than 100.

As the curiosity was brewing over the mysterious recoveries, Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) A Satish Ganesh said these were bodies ostensibly of unmarried girls and children who were disposed off in the river by their kin as part of last rites. The bodies surfaced after water receded near Pariyar Ghat, he said.

"During preliminary investigation, local residents informed that instead of cremating the bodies of unmarried girls they are set adrift in the Ganga river," the IG said. "Most of the bodies were badly mutilated so it was difficult to ascertain their gender," he said.

The DM said post-mortem was not possible as per the opinion of the doctors and instead sampling was being done for DNA testing. A team of doctors led by Chief Medical Officer Geeta Yadav is taking forensic sample of the bodies.

In a related development, the sanitation workers have refused to take out the bodies from the river as they are in a very bad shape, an officer said. In Delhi, Union Minister for Water Resources and Ganga Cleaning Uma Bharti said, "We have also received information through the media, party workers and ministry officials over the issue."

She said she had spoken to the District Magistrate of Unnao and "I have also sought information from the Uttar Pradesh Government on how it happened."

DNA collected from bodies

A team of forensic experts on Wednesday collected DNA samples from 80 bodies. A team of 10 doctors from Unnao were requisitioned by the district administration for the job. The samples have been collected for assessing the cause of death and establishing the gender of the dead.

About 100 bodies were found floating near Pariyar Ghat in Unnao. Reports said that the Ganga here, after taking a bend in its course, follows a shallow path, which is why the bodies surfaced. The Unnao District Magistrate has been asked to submit a detailed report to the Home Department. IG (Law and Order) A. Satish Ganesh said since some of the bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition it was not possible to collect their DNA extract. “The doctors expressed their inability to conduct any examination given the putrid state of the bodies,” Mr. Ganesh told reporters. The IG said prima facie the deaths appear to have been caused by natural causes. “The process of collecting DNA samples is being videographed,” he said.

Mr. Ganesh said a consensus to bury the bodies was agreed upon by public representatives, gram pradhans of the villages near the Pariyar Ghat, villagers and officials. The burial ritual would be conducted after mass prayers, called “shanti path”, as a mark of respect to the deceased, the IG (Law and Order) said. He added the DIG, Lucknow Range, R.K. Chaturvedi camped at the site overnight to oversee the meeting.

To identify the bodies, the gram pradhans have been asked by the Unnao district administration to submit information of those who died in their villages in the last six months. This would enable the authorities to trace their families.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-100-bodies-recovered-from-ganga-centre-seeks-information-from-uttar-pradesh-2052463

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/dna-samples-collected-from-bodies-found-in-ganga/article6789645.ece

QZ8501: Officials face challenges in identifying recovered bodies

Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) officials are facing several challenges in identifying the bodies recovered from AirAsia QZ8501. One of the issues is incomplete ante-mortem data such as fingerprints or dental records.

Many of the bodies now being discovered no longer have fingerprints or recognisable physical features. DVI officials must turn to either DNA samples or dental records to accurately verify and identity an individual.

Budiyono, head of East Java Disaster Victim Identification, said: "Many have asked me why we're announcing identified bodies in small batches. That's not our intention. In fact, we are facing difficulties matching ante-mortem and post-mortem data.

"The bodies that we're handling are severely decomposed. But our DVI team is continuously working on them - thus we've been able to identify some each day."

Identifying bodies is a painstaking process, as each body that comes in to the morgue, must be compared to the ante-mortem data of the other 162 people on board QZ8501. Ante-mortem data include fingerprints, dental records, DNA samples, physical features and the last clothes worn by the deceased.

Forensic orthodontology expert A Fauzi, from the Indonesian National Police, said: "Teeth is one of the body's hardest parts which can take trauma. However if it is submerged in sea water, it can decompose quickly. So far, most of the teeth are in their sockets. But in situations where they are submerged in sea water for a long time, they can be dislocated from the sockets."

DVI officials have been working long hours to find matches as incomplete ante-mortem data have proven to be a major challenge. The officials are now taking a proactive approach in completing the ante-mortem data of the remaining unidentified passengers.

Instead of waiting for relatives to come forward, the officials have travelled to locations as diverse as the metropolis of Jakarta and a remote village on Leti island, 30 hours away by sea from Ambon, to get the data they need for a full ante-mortem profile. The DVI officials are scheduled to return to Surabaya by Tuesday.

Search for victims extended

Indonesia search and rescue agency BASARNAS has been forced to extend the search for bodies from the downed AirAsia QZ8501 beyond the “legal timeframe”, BASARNAS chief Bambang Soelistyo told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday (Jan 13), according to a Detik.com report.

In a briefing to Indonesia's House of Representatives on the search and recovery of QZ8501 crash victims, Mr Soelistyo said seven days is the legal timeframe for retrieving bodies, noting that BASARNAS has done everything by the book. The search and rescue agency was focused on finding bodies for the first seven days, while Indonesia's armed forces focused on finding the fuselage, he said.

On Jan 7, which was the 11th day of the search, the search entered a new phase when the tail was found and BASARNAS' focus switched to finding the black box – though the search for bodies continued, said Mr Soelistyo.

When asked about the chances of finding more bodies, Mr Soelistyo said it is harder to find bodies underwater than on the surface. All 48 bodies recovered so far were spread out, though BASARNAS expected most bodies to be found in the fuselage of the plane.

Tuesday 13 January 2015

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/qz8501-officials-face/1587534.html

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/search-for-qz8501-bodies/1586998.html