Brazil identifies 1st 5 victims' bodies in air crash
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-06 13:22 Brazil's medical authorities
on Thursday identified the first five bodies of those killed in last Friday's
Brazilian airliner crash, which killed all the 154 people aboard.
All the 148 passengers and six crew members aboard the Boeing 737-800 were
killed in Brazil's worst-ever air disaster, and 100 bodies have been found so
far.
The Medico-Legal Institute (IML) identified the five bodies using
fingerprints and information supplied by victims' families.
The IML has been operating under emergency conditions, using three large army
tents and undertaking seven autopsies simultaneously.
Brazilian rescue workers carry to a
refrigerator truck bagged remains of the victims of Gol airlines flight
1907 that crashed into the Amazon jungle on September 29 in the worst air
disaster in Brazil's history, in the Jarinda ranch near the crash site
where the Air Force has their base of operations for the rescue October 5,
2006.[Reuters] |
The IML has not yet received all the fingerprints of victims and may have to
resort to DNA examinations which typically take five days to get results.
The Boeing collided with a small executive jet and then crashed in the remote
Amazon jungle.
The executive jet, a Legacy 600 made by Embraer, made an emergency landing at
a nearby air force base after the collision, with no casualties.
The crashed airliner belonged to low-cost airlines Gol, Brazil's second
largest air carrier. The company said in a statement that the U.S. aircraft
giant Boeing had just delivered the jet on Sept. 12.
The Boeing's black boxes had been found earlier and the cause of the accident
was under investigation.
Brazil's Defense Minister Waldir Pires said the authorities were
investigating why the smaller jet had not been flying at its authorized altitude
of 11,000 meters.
The collision took place at 11,300 meters, the authorized altitude for the
Gol airliner.
Investigators were also trying to find out how two new aircraft equipped with
the latest anti-collision systems could have collided.
Brazilian authorities had suggested that the two pilots of the smaller jet
may have turned off their transponder which signaled their location. The two
have denied that allegation.
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