Optimized mass fatalities victim identification: An airplane crash as a test case

CORACH D; SALA A; BOBILLO MC; CAPUTO M; ALECHINE E; IRISARRI M; MARINO M; CANONACO E; RODRIGUEZ C

FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL-GENETICS

ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 p. 1 - 3

1872-4973

Efficient corpse tissue preservation, automated DNA extraction, sensitive DNA quantification and expertanalysis software makes possible to design highly efficient workflows that speed up the mass disastervictim identification process from highly fragmented human bodies. Herein we describe the workflowemployed in the reconstruction of the identity of 22 victims fragmented in 418 remains that emergedfrom the airplane crash occurred on May 18th 2011 in the province of Rio Negro, Argentina. Fatal victimsidentification was performed by comparison with first degree relatives by autosomal and Y STRsanalysis. A SAAB plane carrying 19 passengers and three crew members (3 females and 19 males)exploded at high altitude over the ground level (approx. 2000 m). All bodies were severely fragmentedand a high number of isolated cranial bones were found. Remains were collected at the disaster area andsent to Buenos Aires where samples were selected and preserved in 50 mL polypropylene tubescontaining solid sodium chloride (table salt). DNA extractions from muscle and bone were performedusing a semi-automated DNA purification system, quantification was carried out by Real Time PCR, STRsamplification using commercial kits and STR profile analysis with the help of an expert software. Theimplementation of this strategy allowed us to identify all the victims in one week. However, thecomplete task of identifying all remains recovered within the disaster area took over ten months due tothe wide dispersion of fragments and the court?s decision to identify each morphologically recognizablehuman tissue found within the disaster area.