Experience with the cytological demonstration of smoker cells in the identification of disaster victims illustrated by the findings concerning the Lauda-Air airliner crash near Bangkok

Abstract

On 26 May 1991, a Lauda-Air airliner crashed after take-off at Bangkok from an initial height of ∼ 8000 m. The plane came down in inaccessible jungle terrain, so that the difficulties of locating and salvaging the victims were considerably increased by the tropical conditions and the looting that had occurred. Identification of the victims took place in extremely adverse working conditions in the pathological department of the Police Hospital in Bangkok. The technique developed by the first author for the identification of persons in the light of their smoking habits by determining the existence of the so-called smoker cells was used to subdivide the entire autopsy material into ‘smokers’, ‘non-smokers’ and ‘incidental or passive smokers’. This allows the division of mass disaster victims into smaller specific groups and the application of further identification procedures within these groups in a shorter time. The findings of the cytological examination carried out locally were compared with the police investigations regarding the individual victim's smoking habits, and the method, quick and simple to use even in ‘field conditions’, proved highly efficaceous.