Israel Humanitarian Forensic Team Alone In Treating Thailand Air Crash Victims

By Jonathan Ariel
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----September 19...... The Israel forensic team, headed by Israel police officer Chief Superintendent Itzik Koronio has placed itself at the disposal of all the countries whose nationals were among the 91 passengers killed in last week’s air crash while attempting to land at the Phuket resort island airport in Thailand.

Israel is the only nation to have sent its own forensic team to the site. The Israel humanitarian team, which arrived on Monday has been working round the clock, and has already succeeded in identifying the remains of seven of the nine Israeli victims presumed to have been killed in the accident. In addition the humanitarian medical professionals from Israel have already succeeded in enabling the identification of several Westerners who died in the crash.

Since arriving the Israel team has received requests from consular officials from the US, UK, Australia, several EU member states, and other countries who had nationals on the ill fated flight. In addition families of the passengers who have arrived independently at the crash site have also approached the Israel team for assistance in identifying the remains of their loved ones.

The team has willingly responded, and is providing whatever assistance it can to consular officials and families at the site. One British national has already been positively identified by the team, after the family provided the team with the person’s personal belongings, enabling rapid finger print identification.

Israel Chief-Supt. Koronio said that since arriving, the humanitarian Jewish team has been working non stop.

“Despite the difficult conditions and fatigue, we are motivated by the obvious pain and suffering of the families uncertain of the fate of their loved ones, and are working almost non-stop”. “I have nothing but praise for all the members of the team, who are all making heroic efforts. We understand the need of the families to get some degree of closure.”

Everyone on the team is giving a 200 percent effort, since arriving none of us have had more than 2-3 hours of uninterrupted sleep”. Despite this, and the difficult physical and emotionally stressful conditions we are all working under, no one is complaining, and morale is great”, he said.

Even Iran has requested the Israel team’s assistance. Yesterday Iran’s ambassador to Thailand formally requested the Israeli team’s assistance in identifying the remains of Iranian nationals aboard the flight. “This is a disaster which transcends politics”, he said, “a purely humanitarian issue”.

In addition to Israel police officers, the team also includes a physician from the Forensic Institute, MDA paramedics and ZAKA personnel.

Israel was also the first Western nation to send a forensic team to Thailand after last year’s Tsunami disaster, and for several weeks was the only non-Thai forensic team present. That team also provided assistance to officials and citizens of dozens of countries whose nationals perished in one of the modern era’s greatest natural disasters.

Israeli emergency rescue and forensic teams have a sterling reputation. They are frequently requested when either natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis or man made disasters such as major terror attacks occur. This is due the high level of training and preparedness of these police or Israel Defense Forces units, enabling them to be deployed on very short notice. In addition they benefit from unique technology equipment specially developed by Israel’s renowned hi-tech industry.