Belgium experience in disaster victim identification applied in handling terrorist attack at Brussels Airport 2016

Abstract

The Belgian disaster victim identification (DVI) team is involved in many investigations in our country. Indeed, this specialized team of the federal police oversees searching for and investigating criminally buried dead bodies, identification of unknown putrefied corpses, and more. The Belgian DVI team also assists with the identification of victims of mass disasters (natural, accidental, and mass murders). In this article, we consider the contributions of different teams (forensic pathology, anthropology, and odontology, federal police, and crime scene investigation) both on the scene of the attack at the Brussels National Airport (Zaventem) and in the laboratory work (autopsies, sample studies).

The burning maze: The potential value of the human bony labyrinth in estimating sex of calcined remains

“…In criminal cases, the intention to dispose quickly of a body using fire could be amplified by additional tools or chemical products (e.g., dismemberments using a saw or acid) that can further fragment bones [13]. Similarly, in some cases, fire-induced fragmentation may also be accompanied by complementary mechanisms such as blasts in bombings or high energy transfer in car or plane crashes [5,14].…”

“…In criminal cases, the intention to dispose quickly of a body using fire could be amplified by additional tools or chemical products (e.g., dismemberments using a saw or acid) that can further fragment bones [13]. Similarly, in some cases, fire‐induced fragmentation may also be accompanied by complementary mechanisms such as blasts in bombings or high energy transfer in car or plane crashes [5, 14]. Lastly, post‐depositional and diagenetic processes may play a role in the state of preservation of burnt remains (e.g., soil nature, surface exposition, length of buried period, or animal access).…”

Radiographic presentation of artifactual dyed hair on lateral cephalograms, chemical processing, and forensic application: Novel case report

“…Coupling the use of secondary and primary means of human identification of target victims is a strategy encouraged by guidelines worldwide to facilitate a less time-consuming reconciliation phase and a more systemized approach. An example of a human mass disaster in an open scenario was the 2016 terrorist attack in Belgium [3]. On that occasion, the bodies of 3 suicide bombers and 32 civilians were examined, whereby 14 victims were identified with a combination of dental and secondary identifiers [3].…”

“…An example of a human mass disaster in an open scenario was the 2016 terrorist attack in Belgium [3]. On that occasion, the bodies of 3 suicide bombers and 32 civilians were examined, whereby 14 victims were identified with a combination of dental and secondary identifiers [3].…”

Forensic multidisciplinary involvement after terrorist attacks

“…The paper proposed by Beauthier et al. [ 8 ] considers the different teams’ contributions (forensic pathology, anthropology and odontology, federal police and crime scene investigation) present both on the scene of the attack on the Brussels National Airport (Zaventem) and in the laboratory work (autopsies, sample studies). These authors still insisted on the major role concerning the technical and human difficulties of the AM team.…”