Confusion, grief as families identify bodies amid stench

Tears flowed freely yesterday as over 300 relatives of the victims of DANA Air plane crash stormed the Lekan Ogunsola Memorial House of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.
Most of them broke down at the sight of the lifeless and charred bodies of their breadwinners, children and friends, who died in the ill-fated flight and others, whose houses were hit by the aircraft.
To others, it was an endless search as they went round the facilities without finding their missing relations.
Confusion reigned as they moved from one end of the building, screaming “where is …(mentioning names of the affected victim).
They starred into the faces of 43 decomposing bodies amid heavy stench that oozed from every side and not finding any that looked familiar to them, many of them broke down in tears.
“If he is dead, why can’t I find his body to give him a befitting burial,” a woman lamented amid tears. She lost her husband in the crash.
Hospital officials told The Guardian that only 43 of the 103 bodies that were brought to the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine, LASUTH were identifiable.
Others were burnt beyond recognition and only through DNA could their relatives identify them. The bodies have been taken to the Mainland General Hospital for examination beginning from yesterday.
Of the 43 identifiable bodies, families and friends had identified only 29 as at 4 p.m. yesterday.
06/06/12 Seye Olumide,Wole Oyebade, Isaac Taiwo, Kenechukwu Ezeonyejiaku, Chijioke Iremeka, Chika Goodluck/The Guardian

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Categories: Foreign Jun 2012, Safety Jun 2012