Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Body Parts from the Four Crash Victims Recovered: Requested judicial cooperation from Dutch side --- Prosecutor Jacques Louvier. Piper PA-42-720 Cheyenne III, F-GXES, Transports Aériens Intercaraïbes - Guadeloupe

Prosecutor Jacques Louvier, Commandant of the Gendarmerie Stephen Brunet, and the team of investigators that specialize in airline crashes.


Marigot:--- The team of Gendarmes investigating the TAI Air Ambulance crash that took place early Saturday morning confirmed to reporters on Monday afternoon that they recovered body parts from all four of the victims. Prosecutor Jacques Louvier who was among the investigators at the press conference said the body parts now have to be analyzed and forensic testing has to be done to legally identify the four victims.

Louvier and the team of investigators said that since the whole bodies were not found they have to find relatives of the victims to do detailed DNA testing to identify the victims. Gendarmes who specialize in airline crashes that are currently on the island heading the investigation said that the testing and identification process will take time especially since one of the victims is from Cyprus. Investigation coordinator Fredrick Dozieres said that they would have to involve Interpol in order for them to get a close relative of the foreign victim so that he could be identified. The four victims have been identified as Bruno Le Jeune, Dr. Jean Michel Dudiot, Nurse Gerard Omer, and the cardiac patient Panayiotis Vrionides.

Prosecutor Louvier also announced on Monday that he submitted a request to the Dutch authorities requesting judicial cooperation from the Dutch side of the island so that the investigators could piece together exactly what happened and how the victims ended up on the French side of the island since the patient was hospitalized at the St. Maarten Medical Center.

Special aircraft investigator attached to the Gendarmerie Philippe Mola said that the divers already located the aircraft which is over 10 meters underwater. He said by the end of this week the investigators will be able to bring the wreckage to land so that they could continue their in-depth investigation into the cause of the accident. Mola said as an expert in aircraft crash investigations he could already say that there is no single cause of such an accident. Based on the damages he has seen thus far, it is clear that the aircraft had a huge impact when it crashed into the water. Mola said they have issued an order to all beach lovers and boat users not to venture in close proximity of the accident since they need every single piece of evidence that washed ashore.

The Gendarmes and special investigators that are busy conducting the three phase investigation is also calling on anyone who might have witnessed the fatal crash of the Piper Cheyenne III early Saturday morning to contact the Gendarmerie at telephone number 17 or 0590 52 30 00.

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