Dana Crashed Site |
The bodies of the two pilots of Dana
Air’s MD-83 plane which crashed in Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State on
June 3, 2012 were not found as they might have been completely
incinerated by the post-crash inferno.
The Chief Medical Examiner and
Consultant Pathologist of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital,
Prof. John Obafunwa, said this in his testimony at a Lagos State coroner
court sitting in Ikeja on Friday.
The American pilot, Mr. Peter Waxtan,
55, and his Indian co-pilot, Mr. Mahendra Rathore, 34, were among the
six crew members of the plane; 147 passengers and uncertain number of
others on the ground, who were killed in the crash.
Obafunwa, who coordinated series of
post-mortem tests, apart from the DNA analysis, on the bodies recovered
from the crash site, said a total of nine persons among the 153 persons
aboard the plane, could not be identified.
He said, “I had a manifest of 153 persons. Out of the 153, we were able to identify 144, leaving nine.
“I must say from the manifest, at the
end of the day, we could not identify the bodies of the pilot and the
co-pilot and that was after exhaustive deliberation and consultation.
“Bodies of other crew members were identified.”
He said apart from Waxtan and Rathore,
who were certain to be on the plane, the other seven names of passengers
on the manifest whose bodies were not found might actually not have
boarded the plane.
He said among the 148 bodies identified
with their names, three of them, through the DNA analysis carried out on
the bodies in the United Kingdom, were discovered to be among the
bodies of those who died on the ground.
He, however, told the court presided
over by Mr. Oyetade Komolafe that the bodies of other crew members,
apart from those of Waxtan and Rathore, were identified.
Obafunwa, who was appearing before the
coroner court for the second time to give a report of the DNA analysis
on the victims of the crash, said his team received 152 body bags from
the crash site.
Led in evidence by the counsel for the
state’s Attorney-General, Akinjide Bakare, the pathologist said three
unidentified bodies were still being kept in the mortuary.
Giving insight into why the bodies could
not be identified, Obafunwa, who is also the Chief Medical Director of
LASUTH, said some of the bodies were so burnt that blood and urine could
not be extracted from them for certain tests.
Oyetade adjourned till January 25 for lawyers representing other parties to cross-examine the pathologist.
PUNCH
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