I saw a BBC story about the Russian plane crash this evening. It showed a big cargo plane landing in St Petersburg with the first corpses from the crash, and then a semi-truck carrying the corpses to a morgue.
For no good reason I was really surprised by using an 18 wheeler to transport bodies in bulk. Also, the truck looked so white, almost gleaming that it might have been some kind of purpose-built ambulance/hearse. I don’t recall seeing anything like it in the past. I (probably naively) imagined that once corpses cam off the plane there would be some kind of line of hearses to transport the bodies individually.
Do the US and other Western countries use semi-trucks to transport bodies?
Stands to reason that the authorities are not likely to use hearses until they have the bodies in individual coffins, rather than body bags. I expect they generally use mortuary vans before that point, but if you have a very large number of bodies to transport then you might use a larger vehicle as a temporary mortuary van.
Or thousands of tiny remote controlled cars with elf attendants ? Once bodies have come down 30,000 feet, it’s a case of To Your Scattered Bodies, Go.
Actually that would be a striking procession.
But whilst this collection of meat has to be treated reverently, I was astounded to hear that the authorities are taking DNA from what relatives they can find to match up the remains.
a/ They have a passenger list so they know who died
Identifying the bodies is hardly futile. It enables bodies to be returned to next of kin for mourning and burial.
(Plus, if there is any possibility that the plane was brought down by terrorist action, there’s always the chance that some of the passengers were flying under a false identity.)
Why does that matter ? The common obsession with funerary arrangements is ignoble: it doesn’t matter if your unidentified bones rest in a huge ossuary at Verdun or on the burning sands of the desert or where the wild waves blow. You are still dead.
And in a mere 10,000 years no-one will care where anyone alive today rests, nor what they did in life.
That’s exactly what happened when the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims were brought to the Netherlands; complete with military honour guards and the Royal Family presiding.
Funerals are not for the benefit of the deceased; they’re for the benefit of deceased friends & family.
First, most of the bodies recovered so far apparently were still in the seats, with seatbelts. IIRC, the fail point for seats will be the bolts holding them to the floor. The terminal velocity for bodies tends to be about 100mph so the hamburger helper rule only applies if the intact fuselage slams into the ground head-on at 600mph. In both Ukraine and here, they seemed to be finding fairly intact bodies.
One of the tings that struck me in both Europe and especially Egypt was the lack of 18-wheelers. Numbers may be steadily increasing, but it seems to me the hordes of giant tractor-trailers are symptomatic of North America with an extensive high-speed highway network, less rail, and a lot of money to spend on equipment over people.
But for the OP, I would suspect the transport is a commandeered refrigeration truck. I know if I were a company leasing a truck for such a job, I’d prefer not to have “Abdullah’s Meats” logo on the international TV news in this context. A paint job would be recommended. I doubt the Army has these on standby, and it’s far too fast for it to be shipped in. I can’t imagine a tractor-trailer being flown in for the occasion - a paint job on a local unit would be simpler. And, of course, proper lining and covers out of respect and for sanitation.
It has been done for mass-casualty events. I just got done reading a book called [about a medical examiner in training who was involved with the body identification post-9/11 in New York City. She describes seeing semi-trailers of bodies (and parts) arriving from the WTC site, dozens of them. Refrigerated trailers were used to store the human remains as well, apparently sourced from commercial shipping companies.
So yes, it’s a technique used in the west, too. Probably all over the world, wherever such trucks and trailers are available.
There’s also the matter of matching this limb to that torso so when the families get the box with their loved one’s bits in it the bits are their loved one and not mixed with someone else’s bits that should be going to a different family, even if most bodies are largely intact a few might not be, and even if the bodies are largely intact they might mutilated (fire, impact damage to the face, etc.) such that visual identification is either impossible or would be severely traumatizing to some of the loved ones.
Also, as mentioned, flying under a false identity.
Right, that’s why we never dig up ancient sites and study them… oh, wait, we have a whole profession that does that!
Of course, such an anthropologist won’t have a personal attachment to anyone they dig up, just curiosity.
But mainly, as noted, funerals are for the benefit of the living.