THAILAND: International forensic experts to help identify charred bodies from Sunday's plane crash

Phuket International Airport reopened on Monday (September 17) twelve hours after a plane crash which killed at least 89 people. Relatives of victims and hundreds of tourists who had been stranded began to arrive as the airport opened its runway for international and domestic flights. An Israeli search and rescue team working with the Israeli embassy arrived to help identify bodies. "We are going to find the bodies and before that we will look for the injured people. Actually from Israel we have eight casualties. We have 10 people, two are injured and eight are, we believe here," said Rabbi Nehemya Wilhelm from the Identification Centre. He said there were two couples among the eight casualties. Israel's main forensic team is due to arrive on Tuesday (September 18) to help assist families with the identification process. The seven experts from Israel will join Thai and other forensic experts in the operation. This comes three years after Phuket saw the largest forensic operation in history. In 2004, Israel sent a team to the island to help identify the nearly 5,500 victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Autopsies on the 89 bodies were completed earlier on Monday and investigators were collecting fingerprints, blood samples and X-raying teeth. In the wake of Sunday's crash, three refrigerated containers were sent to Phuket airport and others will be moved there over the next few days. Unclaimed bodies will be buried at a cemetery in the neighbouring southern province of Phang Nga, where more than 400 unidentified bodies of tsunami victims were buried last year. Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont led other Thai officials in visiting a makeshift morgue where charred bodies were laid out, pending identification. Having recovered the flight data recorders, investigators were sifting through the gutted fuselage for clues as to why the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 veered off the runway before smashing into a wooded embankment and bursting into flames. The death toll, so far, has been placed at 89, including 34 Thais and 55 foreigners, many of them European holidaymakers visiting the "Pearl of the Andaman" isle, famed for its white-sand beaches, azure waters and nightlife. Thai rescue workers dragged the last bodies from the charred wreckage on Monday and investigators, having recovered the flight data recorders, were sifting through the gutted fuselage for clues. Canadian tourist Millie Furlong, 23, one of the 41 survivors recovering in hospital, spoke about her horrific experience and her lucky escape. "The flames went back and then we felt the air behind us and they kicked the window so we got up and we went out the window after a few people went out," Furlong told Reuters Television. Officials say the death toll was 34 Thais and 55 foreigners, many of them European holidaymakers who have come to one of Thailand's best holiday destinations. Hospital officials say five survivors were in critical condition, with burns to 60 percent of their bodies. The Indonesian captain and his Thai co-pilot were both killed. Much of the crash investigation is likely to focus on the weather as the plane was coming in to land. Despite a number of crashes and scares, most recently in Indonesia, analysts say there is no hard evidence to suggest budget carriers are more accident-prone than their full-service competitors.

ITN Source | September 18, 2007

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