17 March 2010
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The data on missing persons should be recorded on the yellow ante-mortem forms; the pink post-mortem forms should be used for data on bodies. Ante-mortem and post-mortem forms will naturally be filled in by different people, at different times and places, but they will subsequently be taken to the Identification Centre for matching. When a large number of features are found to correspond exactly or some features are characteristic enough to rule out all doubt, a positive identification will have been achieved. Accurate identification will require detailed analysis of the data which should be undertaken by personnel with the necessary expertise.
The yellow pages of the Disaster Victim Identification Form will be used by
this Unit to record ante-mortem data for all persons reported as possible victims
of the disaster. Previous experience on numerous occasions has shown that the
number of persons reported as potential victims invariably massively exceeds
the number actually involved. An early decision will therefore have to be made
on whether to record the data given in initial reports on the Disaster Victim
Identification forms immediately or to begin using the forms only when there
is some evidence of a person's presence. The personnel collecting ante-mortem data should be experienced in taking detailed reports and must have a thorough knowledge of the layout and purpose of the Interpol form. Although police officers generally gain this type of experience through routine police duties, they are unlikely to be familiar with the Disaster Victim Identification forms and will need thorough briefing. Other agencies, e.g. the Red Cross, are often willing to help obtain the information required and to assist both police and families. It is essential that as much detail as possible is obtained and recorded on the Interpol form during the first interview with relatives, friends, etc., and that the identity of the person making the report (the informant), and particulars of how they can be contacted in the future, are recorded. It may be necessary to contact that person at a later stage, to give or obtain further information. It is equally important to ask informants to report again immediately if they receive any news about the assumed victim - for example that the person has returned home, or is otherwise accounted for. The personnel collecting this data should also be aware of the possibility that the same person may already have been reported missing by someone else and that another form may therefore have been filled in on the same potential victim. When specific medical or dental information is required, it is important to obtain the names and addresses of family doctors and dentists (present and past), together with as many details as possible of medical and dental history. Advice on the type of details required should be sought from the doctors and dentists attached to the AM Files Unit (see Point 4.2.2). It should be noted that during this recording stage no reference number is inserted in the box at the top right hand corner of the Disaster Victim Identification form. This box is for the appropriate body reference number to be added, if and when an identification ensues. It may, however, be advantageous to indicate the nationality of the missing person by adding the identification letters used on vehicle registration plates, e.g. CH for Switzerland, F for France, GB for Great Britain. Most missing person reports will be received by telephone, but relatives and others seeking information may contact a wide range of institutions in different countries. A system of col-lating the data they provide will have to be established at the Missing Persons Unit. When all available information has been recorded, the completed forms must
be transferred to the AM File Section.
This Unit will file all ante-mortem reports by family name, alphabetically. It would be advis-able to computerize this function in order to facilitate searching, storing the information and checking for 'double' reporting, i.e. persons reported more than once. Prior training will therefore be needed. As indicated above, 'double' reporting has frequently occurred during the first few hours following a major disaster. Accordingly, personnel should be aware of the need to check continually for such duplication. The AM Files Unit is responsible for checking that all ante-mortem reports
are complete and for obtaining any missing data. It may be necessary to form
'relative liaison teams', com-prising local police officers in the
different countries concerned, in order to obtain further in-formation (missing
data, photographs, medical records, etc.) If a potential victim's finger In many countries medical records will only be handed to the police, in confidence. An AM Medical Unit and an AM Dental Unit should be set up, staffed by qualified doctors and den-tists who are entitled to read the records, and are also capable of interpreting and extracting relevant information. These expert groups will need to co-operate closely with the corre-sponding PM medical and dental personnel who are responsible for filling in the relevant sections of the PM Form. The Director of Victim Identification should maintain constant liaison with the Directors of Communications and Rescue Operations, so as to be in a position to decide when to start transferring completed AM records to the Identification Centre Files Unit.
The immediate responsibility of the AM Files Unit will to be to compile as
reliable a victim list as possible. In the case of a commercial aircraft crash,
for example, a passenger list may quickly become available from the carrier
but in other circumstances it will usually take a considerable time before such
a list can be established. Caution should always be exercised about the accuracy
of any passenger list provided as experience has shown that there are often
inaccuracies for a number of reasons. The total number of presumed victims is
extremely important, because any decision to stop searching must take into consideration
the question of whether the number of survivors and the number of bodies recovered
matches the number of people on the victim list. Perhaps the simplest and most obvious way to begin compiling an accurate victim list is:
When the total number of dead victims has been established the AM Files Unit will be able to assess whether the number of bodies plus survivors matches the number on the list of passen-gers or residents supplied. There will, of course, be many incidents where it is simply not possible to assess the number of victims accurately, for example in the case of widespread natural disasters.
It will be helpful to record details of all survivors before they leave the
incident site, at a vic-tim checkpoint. This list could be made on a suitable
form. In most disasters, however, it may be far more practical to obtain those
details at evacuation centres, hospitals, aid points All bodies and parts brought to the victim checkpoint or first aid station must be given a ref-erence number before removal to a temporary holding area or mortuary. Injured persons may die in ambulances or at first aid facilities. Their bodies must be numbered and moved di-rectly to the mortuary set up for the incident or the body holding area to make certain that they are not 'lost' or forgotten.
The recovery of dead victims does not start until the rescue of all survivors has been com-pleted. Rescue teams will have been instructed to leave dead bodies and body parts un-touched, but many bodies and much evidence may justifiably be moved during attempts to save lives and effect rescues. Body recovery should also be considered as part of the process of locating and safeguarding evidence. It is important for accurate records to be kept under the supervision of a Recovery Co-ordinator.
The Recovery Co-ordinator must prepare a structured search and recovery phase, in liaison with others such as the air accident investigators, police investigators and safety advisors. This will involve searching for bodies, property and evidence, including wreckage. He will need a map of the scene in order to produce a grid chart or site plan, to ensure thorough searching and the plotting of bodies, wreckage, etc.
It is essential for search teams to understand that they are the first of many links in the identi-fication process, and that their conscientiousness in performing their duties may make the dif-ference between success and failure. Their first function will be to locate and mark all bod-ies and body parts as well as other relevant evidence. It is up to the Recovery Co-ordinator to decide how many people to allocate to a search team, but they should be sufficient in number to be able to locate, record, stake, and label items, and they may be accompanied by medical personnel, photographers or other specialists. It is also recommended that details be kept of the members of search teams and the sectors to which they are allocated, for continuity to be maintained as far as evidence is concerned. Each search team should be allocated an area (or areas) within the scene -
which could be much larger than is immediately apparent, as in the case of a
wreckage trail from an aircraft breaking up at altitude. The teams will be responsible
for ensuring that a thorough search is A similar but quite separate numbering system must be applied to evidence and property lo-cation and plotting, but because of the large number of personal effects likely to be on the scene, a decision on whether or not to plot and number individual items of property will de-pend on the prevailing circumstances. If numbered body and property labels are available, this will ensure that no numbers are du-plicated. Such labels should have space for details of the person who found the body or ex-hibit and other relevant information such as location, who confirmed life to be extinct, and whether photographs have been taken. Each search team will mark the location (grid-co-ordinate) at which the item
was found on its copy of the grid chart. The search teams will also complete the 'Recovery of Body from scene' page of the pink Disaster Victim Identification form, endorsing it with the body reference number and other required information. Bodies and parts should be described as accurately and concisely as possible. When body parts are found, care must be taken not to assume that they belong to the nearest body. They should be numbered and described as if they were whole bodies. It will, how-ever, be useful to indicate a part by adding the letter 'P' to the reference number, otherwise difficulties could be experienced in accurately determining the number of victims. Naturally, the quantity of stakes and labels used may exceed the number of victims involved. Similarly, personal effects found near bodies cannot be assumed to belong to a nearby body. They should be recovered and bagged separately, but cross-referencing the relevant Disaster Victim Identification Form and property record can indicate a possible link. Dead victims may have been removed from the scene during earlier search and rescue opera-tions, and be held at the victim checkpoint or first aid station. Victims may also have died at those facilities or in hospitals. The Recovery Co-ordinator should delegate to one or more body recovery teams the task of numbering, labelling, listing and removing all such bodies. Care must be taken to ensure that the stakes with corresponding numbers are not used else-where. Searching for bodies and marking them is a tiring task and fatigue can lead to inaccuracies. It is suggested that search teams work for no more than two-hour shifts. It is also strongly rec-ommended that the searching take place in full daylight; even extensive scene illumination has proved insufficient when many search teams are working simultaneously in different parts of an area.
Photographic personnel should be deployed at the earliest opportunity, to record the scene and all activities. Photographic and video recording of bodies at the disaster site and within the mortuary is im-portant both for evidence and because, in many cases, it can help the experts to establish the cause of the incident. Photographers should therefore be attached to search and recovery teams and work in con-junction with them. Body reference numbers must be clearly visible on each exposure and these must be the only numbers used. It should not be necessary to remove body numbers during photography, but if circumstances make this unavoidable the photographer must be responsible for making certain that the correct number is re-attached immediately after pho-tographs have been taken.
A photographer or photographers should be responsible for completing the relevant part of the Disaster Victim Identification PM form and for processing exposed films. The importance of photographs, films and videos cannot be over-emphasized. In addition to being an aid to investigation, they will also provide a clear record of events which will be ex-tremely helpful for de-briefing, for analysing procedures and performance, and for subsequent training.
Properly briefed and equipped body recovery teams are of vital importance; they should fol-low the search teams through the site once the latter have located and marked bodies. Body recovery teams should refer to the grid charts completed by the search teams and should work methodically, clearing the site by sectors. For their health and safety the team members must wear protective clothing comprising at least helmets, overalls, boots and rubber gloves. Before they remove a body or body part, they should ensure that the body or part, the stake and the body bag all bear the same number. All items should be individually and separately numbered and bagged. It is a matter for medical experts to decide which parts constitute a single body, and this is best achieved dur-ing the mortuary examinations. Treating each part in this way will avoid mistakes and cross-contamination by body fluids. Particulars of the person who recovered each body or part should be recorded. Experience has shown that it will take time for a Mortuary Branch to become operational. Search and marking operations may well have been completed by that time and a decision may have been taken to start removing bodies from the scene. In such circumstances, or where bodies need to be transported a considerable distance to the mortuary, it may be necessary to set up a morgue station (i.e. body collection point) to hold bodies pending transportation.
Many effects lying scattered over the area may be very valuable, at least to owners and heirs. Separate property recovery teams must be formed to operate in a similar way to body recov-ery teams. It must be remembered that personal effects can often be an aid to victim identifi-cation and should be kept available for examination by the Mortuary Branch. Effects should be labelled and bagged separately and if necessary the location from which they were recovered should be marked with a numbered stake. The bags must bear the same numbers as the stake, prefixed with the letter 'E' (effects) and with the grid co-ordinate at which the property was located (e.g. E-95-45/86).
The Morgue Station is an interim holding area for bagged bodies and body parts until trans-port can be arranged and the mortuary is ready to receive them. Once the Mortuary Branch has become operational the Recovery Co-ordinator will authorize and supervise the transfer. The Morgue Station will keep its own record of bodies received and stored, listing each body reference number, the date and time of receipt, from whom received and where stored. Sub-sequently details of the transfer (i.e. when, by whom, the mortuary to which the body was taken and the vehicle used for transport) should be recorded. A transport form may be used; it will give the body reference numbers, the date and time of departure, the name of the driver, details of the vehicle and its destination. It may be con-venient to entrust partially-completed PM forms accompanying bodies from the scene or Morgue Station to the mortuary to the vehicle driver or attendant, although it may be more convenient to have them taken separately to the Mortuary Branch. If the above guidelines are observed, there will be a full record from the
time when the body was first located until it reaches the mortuary. Procedures
within the mortuary will provide a continuing record.
An early and important decision will need to be made by the Investigator in Charge and the Director of Victim Identification, in consultation with the pathologists, about the location of the Mortuary Branch if it is not pre-planned. An ideal venue, such as a well equipped medi-cal examiners' office will rarely be available. A mortuary will probably need to be estab-lished on premises affording the best possible facilities in the circumstances. Wherever the mortuary is situated, it is important to ensure that there is adequate protection from the elements, suitable accommodation, running water, drainage and security. Ideally there will be facilities to keep bodies refrigerated (not frozen) and consideration could be given to acquiring refrigerated trucks and portable air cooling units or to using ice rinks, pro-viding the bodies and body bags are not in direct contact with the ice. It may even be necessary, for example in remote areas, to establish this branch on the scene itself, using tents or portable structures for the various tasks to be carried out. In such cases, careful pre-planning is required to ensure that suitable accommodation is also provided for personnel. However, it is generally agreed that the benefits of working in a well-equipped mortuary, even a temporary one, far outweigh the difficulties incurred in transporting bodies away from the scene.
If a secure Mortuary Branch has not been established within the disaster area, a Security Unit will be required. Strict precautions are necessary, not just to allow personnel to work unhin-dered and in privacy but also to safeguard property which may be present. Also, experience has shown that unauthorized persons will often attempt to gain access to mortuaries.
The Body Movement Unit is responsible for the reception of bodies, for their storage before and after examination, and for movement within and out of the mortuary. Strict control of the movement of every body or part and of its location at any given time is necessary to ensure an effective flow through the various examinations to be carried out. This section should be headed by a senior police officer. Bodies should be moved on wheeled trolleys or tables. Other methods will prove to be less efficient and more physically tiring for staff. A Body Reception Point must be selected close to the storage area, where the receiving offi-cer will take responsibility for every body or part brought in. He will need to maintain a Body Storage List showing the body reference number, date, time, from whom received, and where stored. Storage may depend on the condition of the body and may affect the sequence in which it is to be examined. These details should be discussed with a pathologist from the PM Medical Unit. If a body has been received without a reference number (i.e. has been removed from the dis-aster site before being numbered) it must be given a Mortuary Reference Number consisting of a the letter 'M' followed by a number which must be attached to the body. Suitable la-bels and marker pens/pencils should form part of the mortuary equipment. It may well be necessary to begin filling in a Disaster Victim Identification form at this point. To summarize, bodies and body bags will be marked, for example:
Note: Bags bearing an 'E' number (e.g. E95-45/86) are property bags which should not be stored with the bodies; they should be kept in a property store. Whenever a body is taken from storage to examination, this must be indicated on the appro-priate storage sheet (date and time, and to whom handed). When it is returned from exami-nation this again is indicated on the storage sheet and the receiving officer will then reassume responsibility for the body. Facilities for the specialized work of embalming may have to be established within or close to the Body Movement Unit. It should be remembered that bodies may have to be re-examined and therefore only identified bodies should be embalmed. Embalming, coffining and the storage of coffins will require substantial space. Before this Unit hands bodies to the Body Release Unit for disposal, permission must be ob-tained from the investigator in Charge or the Director of Victim Identification to ensure that no further examinations will be necessary.
The PM Records Unit is responsible for collating the post-mortem descriptions and findings for each individual body. An officer from this Unit should be posted at the Body Reception Point in order to accept all copies of the pink Disaster Victim Identification form which arrive with bodies. If the forms do not arrive with the bodies, arrangements must be made to have them transferred from the scene. It will be the responsibility of this officer to number and commence a Disaster Victim Identification PM form for all bodies that arrive without num-bers or unbagged. (The 'M' numbering system described above should be used). Each body to be moved into the examination room for physical description should be placed in the custody of a PM records officer. He should follow the body through all the examina-tion stages until it can be returned for storage. He should sign his name on the appropriate storage sheet when he takes over the body, and should have his own PM check list signed by the receiving officer when he returns it. The PM records officer should be in possession of a pink PM Disaster Victim Identification for each body. Photography and fingerprinting take far less time than external and internal examinations. The PM records officer may therefore call on a member of the PM Photography or PM Fin-gerprint Unit at the appropriate times. Members of these sections will keep their own rec-ords; the PM records officer only needs to mark the time and the name of the specialist in-volved on his check list, and indicate whether photographs and fingerprints have been taken. The PM records officer will be responsible for recording, under dictation, the physical de-scription and features, particulars of clothing and property, and the autopsy findings. How-ever, if two pathologists are participating in the examination, it may be better for one of them to record the autopsy findings because of the technical aspects involved. Dentists will often operate in teams, one of whom will complete the relevant parts of the Dis-aster Victim Identification form - again, because of the specific terminology used - whilst others will co-operate in displaying, cleaning and inspecting teeth, or removing jaws. When physical examinations are completed the body must be re-bagged before being returned to storage; again the body and bag must bear the correct number. The PM records officer should check once more that he is in possession of all parts of the Disaster Victim Identifica-tion form concerning that body before he hands the set of documents to the PM Files Unit; if documents are missing because of ongoing specific examinations this fact can easily be es-tablished from the PM check list.
The Body Examination Unit will be responsible for providing personnel for the mortuary functions (specialists, attendants, etc.) and the facilities necessary for carrying out body ex-amination procedures effectively (e.g. suitable premises, ventilation, good lighting, running water, tables, instruments, clothing, etc.). The availability of these facilities has often influ-enced where the Mortuary Branch is located; even if the location is not perfect, it may have to be accepted as the best available in the circumstances. The premises should cater for the needs of all the various sections involved,
(photographs, fingerprints, property, medical, dental, documentation, embalming
and viewing) as well as for special facilities for property cleaning, X-rays,
specimen photography, etc. The welfare of the personnel is very important and there must be provision for washing, changing, eating and resting. It is recommended that the staff work two-hour shifts. In consultation with the specialists involved, the officer in charge of this Unit must decide how many examination points can be set up and the sequence of body examination. If, as recommended, bodies are placed on wheeled tables or trolleys, it is relatively simple to move them from one specialist to another rather than have the specialists continually moving around the mortuary with their equipment.
The PM Files Unit will collect PM sets of documents relating to individual bodies from the PM records officer as they are completed. Photographs, final property descriptions and spe-cific medical and dental data may not be available at this stage, and it is therefore imperative for the PM Files Unit to keep track of outstanding data and ensure that it is correctly filed when it is eventually received. Sets of PM documents should be filed numerically in three groups:
'E' numbered documents, relating to property, must not be filed in this section but for-warded directly to the Identification Centre Property Unit. The PM Files Unit will be responsible for keeping files secure until they can be transferred to the Identification Centre Files Unit. For practical reasons, incomplete sets of documents may have to be transferred. Any missing items must be clearly indicated and forwarded later. The check list of contents (printed on the front of the Disaster Victim Identification
Forms) can be used for this purpose. It should be noted that if photocopying
is necessary, yellow and pink documents will appear in black and white. Copying
on appropriately coloured paper will avoid any possible mistakes but, if this
is not possible, documents should be constantly checked (upper left corner)
to establish whether they refer to a missing person or dead body. To minimize
confusion it is strongly recommended that all copies be clearly marked 'COPY'.
The Identification Centre compares AM and PM documents forwarded from the AM and PM Files Units. The Centre comprises an Identification Files Unit and a number of specialized sections, the latter responsible for comparing the technical portions of the AM and PM data. Results ob-tained from the specialized sections are fed back to the Identification Files Section to be combined into one master list of results. For practical reasons AM and PM File Sections should be established close to their respective sources of information. The Identification Centre, on the other hand, can be set up independ-ently wherever adequate facilities are available (offices, a copying service, computer assis-tance, projectors, etc.); however it will prove far more convenient if the centre can be estab-lished as an extension either of the Missing Persons Branch (in the Communications Centre) or of the Mortuary Branch. If appropriate, personnel from the AM and PM File Sections could be transferred to the Identification Files Section as their workload decreases. The Identification Centre can save considerable time by using a computerized matching pro-gram to suggest the most likely possible matches quickly, and to establish potential elimina-tions with a high degree of probability. It is essential to remember, however, that any com-puter program is merely an aid, and that final conclusions and decisions can only be made after personal evaluation of all the data available.
The Identification Centre Files Section will take charge of the AM and PM document sets as they arrive. It must continue to liaise with the AM and PM File Sections for as long as they are operating, i.e. until a final Victim List has been established, complete sets of AM docu-ments have been received for all names on the list, and complete sets of PM documents have been received for all unidentified bodies. The Identification Centre Files Section will start by setting up a collection of AM Files in al-phabetical order and a collection of PM Files in numerical order, the latter subdivided into files bearing only a number, files bearing the letter 'M' and files 'P'. It is recommended that the sub-file of numbers preceded by a 'P' should be held back for the time being because the likelihood of body parts being identified independently is small. It may, however, be possible to match and correlate body parts later this will be for experts in the Identification Centre Medical Section to undertake once they have finished comparing 'whole body' data with AM data. Accordingly, the Identification Centre File Section will ultimately be concerned with one AM file and one PM file (whose number may or may not be preceded by an 'M') per victim. These two sets of files now have to be rearranged.
The responsibility of the Identification Board is to:
The Board will ultimately be responsible for the final identification of each individual victim and should therefore be composed of the most experienced identification experts involved in the whole operation, i.e. the chiefs of the various specialized sections, headed by the Director of Victim Identification or his deputy. Any 'immediate' identifications made by the Identification Board can be separated from the outstanding data but will need to be entered in a file of Bodies Identified, still classified into the appropriate victim Groups. Sets of AM and PM documents for all identified bodies should be filed in pairs, in individual binders each of which should be marked with the vic-tim's name and body number. The binders should then be filed numerically. The Identification Board will need to decide whether, and when, individual identification documents should be compiled and death certificates issued, e.g. as soon as identity is con-firmed, once a day or at less frequent intervals. In some countries a one-page death certificate will suffice to allow a body pass to be issued, whereas others may require a complete body description which will involve much more clerical work. It would be very helpful to appoint a separate Body Release Section to handle this task. It must be borne in mind that as long as there are still unidentified bodies,
there will always be the possibility that some or all of those previously identified
have to be re-examined. For this reason, body release should not be unduly precipitated
and embalming, for instance, should not be carried out until absolutely necessary.
Body release will involve a number of practical issues most effectively dealt with by a spe-cific Body Release Section working in liaison with the Body Movement Section in the Mor-tuary Centre. The Body Release Section should be the office through which the Director of Victim Identifi-cation informs families that all procedures in respect of their relatives have been completed. This information should always reach the family before any relevant press releases are made. There will inevitably be a number of questions to answer before a body can be repatriated and it is recommended that a check list be drawn up. The use of a standard format will ensure that all the relevant information can be obtained from families including, the answers to the following questions:
Relatives may wish to view the deceased before burial or cremation; in such cases the Di-rector of Victim Identification should be consulted. By referring to the PM documents, he can advise on the condition of bodies and their suitability for viewing. Substantial assistance can be given by Social Services personnel to visiting relatives and, indeed, to the staff required to work in this area of the operation. A large amount of space and sufficient personnel will be required to carry
out the wide range of duties performed in the Body Release Section. For example,
coffins must be ordered and stored, and arrangements may have to be made for
embalming, facial reconstruction of those to be viewed, shrouding and coffining
(if metal lids are used they will require soldering) one or more funeral ceremonies
(even for those not identified), transportation, etc. For international regulations on the transportation of dead bodies between countries see Appendices.
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