Cargando…

The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17

Malaysia Airlines flight 17 crashed on 17 July 2014 while flying over an area of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The first forensic trace evidence was collected after the human remains were transferred to a safe location in the Netherlands for identification and repatriation. Disaster victim iden...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Vermeij, Erwin, Zoon, Peter, Gerretsen, Reza, Otieno-Alego, Vincent
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9639552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36353332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20961790.2022.2043611
_version_ 1784825665504149504
author Vermeij, Erwin
Zoon, Peter
Gerretsen, Reza
Otieno-Alego, Vincent
author_facet Vermeij, Erwin
Zoon, Peter
Gerretsen, Reza
Otieno-Alego, Vincent
author_sort Vermeij, Erwin
collection PubMed
description Malaysia Airlines flight 17 crashed on 17 July 2014 while flying over an area of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The first forensic trace evidence was collected after the human remains were transferred to a safe location in the Netherlands for identification and repatriation. Disaster victim identification processes were therefore undertaken in concert with the forensic investigation. Prior to these processes, X-ray and computed tomography scanners were used to reveal foreign objects in the human remains, and a large number of these fragments were recovered after the forensic triage. A distinct group of metal fragments was identified as being potential remnants of high-energy foreign objects. Forensic analysis revealed that they were explosively deformed unalloyed steel fragments, some of which had shapes consistent with pre-formed metal fragments found in a 9N314M warhead used in Buk SA-11 missiles. Furthermore, thin film deposits of cockpit glass and aluminium were identified on the most heavily deformed side of some of the explosively deformed metal fragments, suggesting they came from outside the airplane. These findings supported early suspicions that Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was struck by a Buk SA-11 missile. KEYPOINTS: A multidisciplinary approach for combined identification and forensic investigation of human remains after a mass fatality incident. The combined use of complementary X-ray techniques for detection and provisional characterization of foreign objects in human remains. The use of sensitive and highly discriminative state of the art techniques for analysing foreign objects recovered from human remains.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9639552
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-96395522022-11-08 The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 Vermeij, Erwin Zoon, Peter Gerretsen, Reza Otieno-Alego, Vincent Forensic Sci Res Regular Papers Malaysia Airlines flight 17 crashed on 17 July 2014 while flying over an area of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The first forensic trace evidence was collected after the human remains were transferred to a safe location in the Netherlands for identification and repatriation. Disaster victim identification processes were therefore undertaken in concert with the forensic investigation. Prior to these processes, X-ray and computed tomography scanners were used to reveal foreign objects in the human remains, and a large number of these fragments were recovered after the forensic triage. A distinct group of metal fragments was identified as being potential remnants of high-energy foreign objects. Forensic analysis revealed that they were explosively deformed unalloyed steel fragments, some of which had shapes consistent with pre-formed metal fragments found in a 9N314M warhead used in Buk SA-11 missiles. Furthermore, thin film deposits of cockpit glass and aluminium were identified on the most heavily deformed side of some of the explosively deformed metal fragments, suggesting they came from outside the airplane. These findings supported early suspicions that Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was struck by a Buk SA-11 missile. KEYPOINTS: A multidisciplinary approach for combined identification and forensic investigation of human remains after a mass fatality incident. The combined use of complementary X-ray techniques for detection and provisional characterization of foreign objects in human remains. The use of sensitive and highly discriminative state of the art techniques for analysing foreign objects recovered from human remains. Taylor & Francis 2022-11-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9639552/ /pubmed/36353332 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20961790.2022.2043611 Text en © 2022 The Netherlands Forensic Institute. Published by Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Academy of Forensic Science. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Regular Papers
Vermeij, Erwin
Zoon, Peter
Gerretsen, Reza
Otieno-Alego, Vincent
The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
title The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
title_full The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
title_fullStr The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
title_full_unstemmed The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
title_short The outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17
title_sort outcome of the forensic triage preceding disaster victim identification in the downing of malaysia airlines flight 17
topic Regular Papers
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9639552/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36353332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20961790.2022.2043611
work_keys_str_mv AT vermeijerwin theoutcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17
AT zoonpeter theoutcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17
AT gerretsenreza theoutcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17
AT otienoalegovincent theoutcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17
AT vermeijerwin outcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17
AT zoonpeter outcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17
AT gerretsenreza outcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17
AT otienoalegovincent outcomeoftheforensictriageprecedingdisastervictimidentificationinthedowningofmalaysiaairlinesflight17