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Israeli volunteers head to Ethiopia to help identify crash victims

ZAKA members regularly attend scene of terror attacks, road accidents in Israel; airline warns it will take at least five days to return bodies of passengers aboard flight 302 to families

Members of Israeli volunteer organization ZAKA were heading to Addis Ababa to help identify the victims of Sunday's deadly Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, an Israeli diplomat said Tuesday.

 

 

According to Opher Dach, consul of Israel's embassy in Ethiopia, the team was hoping to join the crash site later Tuesday. ZAKA volunteers regularly attend the scene of road accidents and terror attacks in Israel, where they gather body parts and help identify victims. The name is an acronym of the Hebrew phrase "Zihui Korbanot Ason" (identification of disaster victims).


ZAKA volunteers at the scene of a building collapse in Tel Aviv
ZAKA volunteers at the scene of a building collapse in Tel Aviv

 

Trailing smoke and sparks, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged into a field minutes after take-off on Sunday from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people aboard.

 

Two of the victims were Israeli; one was named Monday as Avraham Matzliah, a 49-year-old businessman from Maale Adumim.

 

Israeli crash victim Avraham Matzliah with his daughters
Israeli crash victim Avraham Matzliah with his daughters

 

Also Tuesday, Ethiopia Airlines warned that families of those killed aboard flight 302 must wait at least five days to begin receiving some victims' remains, though the identification of others is expected to take much longer.

 

"The process of identifying the victims will take at least five days," Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Asrat Begashaw told reporters in Addis Ababa on Tuesday. "Families will be notified."

 

Due to the impact and ensuing fire, the identification of some remains could take weeks or months and may need to be done via dental records or DNA, an industry expert said.

 

The process will be complicated because the passengers came from more than 30 countries and Ethiopia has limited forensic capabilities, the expert added, asking not to be named.

 


The crash site (Photo: AP) (Photo: AP)
The crash site (Photo: AP)

 

Noordin Mohamed, a 27-year-old Kenyan businessman, said his family had no information about when they might be able to bury his brother and mother, who is a dual British-Kenyan citizen.

 

"We are Muslim and have to bury our deceased immediately. Now we cannot even recover any bodies," he told Reuters in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. "Losing a brother and mother in the same day and not having their bodies to bury is very painful."

 

Black box recorders recovered on Monday should help piece together the plane's last moments. Ethiopian Airlines' Begashaw did not comment on where they would be investigated.

 

The plane had roared low over the field, spewing white smoke and debris, before swerving sharply and crashing, witnesses at the scene told Reuters.

  


Tribute to the crash victims (Photo: Reuters) (Photo: Reuters)
Tribute to the crash victims (Photo: Reuters)

 

The 737 line, which has flown for more than 50 years, is the world's best selling modern passenger aircraft. The new MAX 8 variant, with bigger engines designed to use less fuel, entered service in 2017 and were intended to become the workhorses for airlines around the globe for decades.

 

But the Ethiopia disaster followed another crash involving the same model in Indonesia six months ago. The Lion Air plane crashed into the sea shortly after take-off, killing 189 people.

 

By Tuesday, civil aviation authorities or airlines had grounded about 40 percent of the world's fleet of 737 MAX 8s.

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.12.19, 13:01
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