The Study of Victim Identification of CI611 Aircraft Accident in Penghu
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Yang, Chuan-Ping
Abstract
May 25, 2002, 3:29 pm, China Airline Flight number CI611 disintegrated in midair over Penghu, all 225 passengers and staff were killed. Radar screen showed it happened 34900 ft. above ground, debris scattered around a vast area at sea.n general, when air tragedy occurs, as a result of plane high speed decent, impact or fire and explosion, the human body would deform, disintegrate, or burned beyond recognition. Yet, with this incident, most bodies were intact, no signs of burning, except few body parts, and can still be recognized after 2- 3 days. The 175th body recovered on the 99th day was just skeleton, all these made this case outstanding.here are three ways of identifying a person:irst: Fingerprint According to officials there were 89 ante-mortem fingerprint records out of 225 victims, and from 175 bodies found there were 33 identified by fingerprint, base on the initial ratio of 89/225, there should be 69 bodies identified, the other 36 could not be identified due to decomposition. So, fingerprint method has a low rate of success. econd: DNA In DNA identification, CIB( Criminal Investigation Bureau, 刑事警察局 ) examined 191 cases and MJIB( Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice, 法務部調查局 ) examined 213 cases (191 + 213 = 404). 5 out of 7 DNA results of some partial remains were not identified (71.4%). No official data showed the number of cases were identified by DNA in 404, therefore, there is no way of knowing how effective this method can be eitherhird: Odontologyer DVI (Disaster Victim Identification), it was suggested that Forensic Odontology is a better method for identifying a decomposed body. Officials noted “There were numerous cases identified by 88 dentists working 2-3 days per person”, yet no comprehensive data becomes public, as a result, this method is also debatable.fficial rules: In order for a family to claim the victim, not only it needs to be identified by family by sight, it needs fingerprint’s confirmation, above all, DNA result pparently Odontology is not legally recommended in our country, but it is the most widely used method of ID’ing a victim in many advanced nations, especially for decomposed body.he air disaster is usually classified as “Enclosed Disaster”, with victims’ name list we can accomplish a lot in a shortest time by using fingerprint and dental record. On the other hand, DNA is quite costly and time consuming, it can only be used as supplemental, not a major way.his thesis is base on the accumulated personal experiences on participation in the past domestic air disaster victim ID process, and learning from advanced nation’s actual handling, and submitting personal concerns regarding this specific air disaster’s ID process, and also suggestions on future improvements:. Fingerprint and DNA ID testing can be less effective on decomposed body, although a specialist announced that officials had ID’d all 175 victims by way of DNA, according to above mentioned, I have doubt.. They used family member’s blood for DNA testing in this case, this is “Paternity Test”, in fact, ante-mortem DNA of victim is more direct, like pathologic biopsy and personal toothbrush.. The governmental in charge units and specialist mostly do not and will not sort, analyze and make public the findings, this makes the advancement of disaster handling extremely difficult.. The result and study of DNA should be disclosed for the future improvement.. Fingerprint is an important tool for personal identification, If we can set up a naional fingerprint data base, then we can do it better.. DNA and fingerprint were emphasized in this investigation. Odontology was thought as a supplemental method.So far we do not have complete victems’ ante-mortem and post-mortem dental records, also no software for computer assisted dental data matching was available, all of these are urgently needed.. Dentist as volunteer is helpful in identifying victims when air disaster strikes, but they are private practitioners and their time involved are limited, so we need administrator’s participation in all processes to collect, sort, analyze and return of all dental data and documentations.
Subjects
disaster victims identification
fingerprint identification
DNA identification
odontology identification
computer-assisted dental data matching software
SDGs
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