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Jakarta Post

Police to run DNA tests on unidentified Hercules victims

The police’s disaster victim identification (DVI) team has announced that it will run DNA tests on dozens of bodies and body parts that remain unidentified several days after being recovered from the site where a C-130 Hercules military aircraft crashed in Medan on Tuesday

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Medan
Sun, July 5, 2015

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Police to run DNA tests on unidentified Hercules victims

T

he police'€™s disaster victim identification (DVI) team has announced that it will run DNA tests on dozens of bodies and body parts that remain unidentified several days after being recovered from the site where a C-130 Hercules military aircraft crashed in Medan on Tuesday.

The deputy chief of the North Sumatra Police DVI, Sr. Comr. Didiet Setiobudi, said his team had officially concluded the physical identification of crash victims on Saturday, having identified 116 of 127 bodies found at the crash site on Jl. Jamin Ginting in Simalingkar, Medan.

The remaining 11 bodies, along with 20 body parts, he said, remained unidentified, prompting the police to run DNA tests in a final attempt at identification.

'€œSince family members are still unable to identify the 11 remaining bodies and 20 body parts, we decided to officially conclude the [physical] identification of the Hercules victims,'€ Didiet told The Jakarta Post.

The police, according to Didiet, had taken the DNA samples from the unidentified bodies and body parts and had sent them to the National Police'€™s laboratory in Jakarta for DNA testing, which will take at least two weeks to complete.

The unidentified bodies, according to North Sumatra Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Helfi Assegaf, are to be transferred from Adam Malik Hospital to the North Sumatra Police'€™s Bhayangkara Hospital, both in Medan, to be preserved until the release of the DNA test results.

The Indonesian Air Force has said that the Hercules C-130 aircraft probably suffered engine failure prior to the crash and denied the aircraft was overloaded after claims civilians had paid to get on board.

The 51-year-old aircraft went down on a housing area shortly after taking off from the nearby Soewondo Air Force Base. There were 122 people on the plane, mostly servicemen and women and their families, with the rest of the fatalities thought to have occurred on the ground.

On Saturday afternoon, crowds were continuing to throng Adam Malik Hospital in search of friends and relatives feared dead in the accident.

Fifty-year-old Naik Padang of Pakpak Bharat regency, North Sumatra, finally managed to find the body of his son, 22-year-old Haritongam Padang, after four days of repeated visits to the hospital.

Naik said his son had been working at traditional steam bath facility that was hit by the plane.

'€œI felt very relieved after I finally found his body,'€ Naik said, adding that he had found his son'€™s body in body bag no. 19.

Separately in Jakarta, Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesperson Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya said that the TNI would provide compensation payments to families of the civilian victims of the crash.

The TNI, however, was still discussing the amount of compensation, as it had never prepared insurance for civilians, Fuad said.

'€œThe TNI has never insured civilians. We only have insurance managed by [TNI insurance company] ASABRI for military personnel,'€ he said.

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