Absolutely chilling:
France is leading the investigation into the cause and will try to recover the plane’s black box data and voice recorders, which could reveal why the jet crashed. Brazilian officials are focusing solely on the recovery of victims and plane wreckage.
In Brazil, Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said nine bodies have been recovered by Brazilian authorities: four men, four women and one that was impossible to identify by gender.
Burned?
Alien?
I think they count it as a body if there is any significant part recovered. I highly doubt that most of these seventeen are at all intact, and the fact that they’re getting as far as determining gender means they’re doing pretty well.
Castrato choir?
Physical condition due to trauma?
We have a plane that may have broken up in mid-air due to faulty speed sensors, with the bodies falling 35,000 feet before hitting the water and then spending a week floating about in the ocean. How is this chilling and not expected?
Because you can always tell if a body is male or female. Men, even when dead, still have an aura of life to them. Women are always lifeless, especially if they didn’t have a man in their life to leech the lifeforce off of. Legend says that a man with no woman in his life would be able to survive any type of plane crash, and some would go so far as to say they could swim for thousands of miles, depending on how many single, womanless men there are. The more single, womanless men, the more lifeforce. If there are at least three single, womanless men, it creates a triforce of lifeforce that is impenetrable. These three men will appear any day now. I’m sure of it.
@7 Check in China. They apparently have a surplus of about 32 million womenless men. Some of them may be ready to try swimming for thousands of miles, so you’ve got your test group right there.
“Chilling” Dan? I think the water down there’s actually quite warm and wonderful this time of year. Crystal blue with a streak of jet fuel…
You fool. Everybody knows the Chinese are worthless, and hardly comparable to human beings. See also: they are slaves to the world, and they have to cheat in the Olympics. Even Steven Spielberg is okay with throwing racism at ’em. GET WITH THE PROGRAM.
Not race, not age, not physical condition – the only impprtant thing about you after you die is which one of two genders society has assigned to you, according to the Washington Post. When they’re unsuccessful in identifying this all-defining characteristic, it’s apparently a horror worthy of a front page mention.
Water off the coast might be warm but it’s also filled with sharks (hence the genderless corpse). I live in Brazil now not far from where it crashed, and Brazilians keep telling me about all the sharks out there.
After decomposing in warm water and being nibbled on by fish for a week, I’m surprised they can determine the gender on any of them.
As long as there is a bone – any bone, really – a forensic anthropologist can attempt to figure out the sex (not gender – never gender) of a body or body part. Granted, some bones give more reliable estimates (pelvis, skull, femur) than others (carpals, fibula). Now I’m curious (as a forensic anthropologist) what they found that could not be identified, even in a rudimentary manner.
@12 YOU HAD TO SAY IT, DIDN’T YOU.
It’s one thing to die in a plane crash, but then to have sharks nibble off your nasties… GAH!
chilling? I see people every day that i can’t tell if they’re a man or a woman.
but then i work in san francisco.
Four men, four women, and a hermaphrodite?
@14: I think that they are basing the inability to determine gender on clearly identifiable external characteristics.
No doubt once DNA testing and forensic anthropologists start getting a chance to examine the remains further verifications will be made.
Sounds like for now the people commenting are the ones retrieving and taking the remains to the staging areas for the scientists to examine. Once extensive testing and examination can be done then more information on identity will be known.
***don’t read this if you’re grossed out easily***
I work in the industry and have been on the Emergency Response Team to have training in this area. Without a doubt it is far more gruesome than reported in the press.
This is typical of the recovery of remains in an air disaster. The human body is a fragile thing and has a tendency to break apart when met with the forces of impact. It is generally considered too gruesome of an aspect to report on so vague terms like “impossible to identify by gender” are used. Finding a body fully intact, post crash and after a week in the ocean is exceedingly unlikely at this point. The DNA is used to identify the parts and pieces likely floating around out there. All some family members may be lucky enough to get back a foot, some internal organs, a finger for burial. It is far, far more gruesome than is written about in the news.
When Swissair crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia they hit the water at full speed. Contrary to popular belief it’s not like hitting the water in your swimming pool, all nice and cushiony. Hitting water at that velocity is no different that hitting the ground or concrete. The aircraft breaks up in to tiny little pieces and so do all the people inside. For weeks after the Swissair crash internal organs, and other bits of people were being collected and washing up on-shore on the beaches of Peggy’s Cove. Same thing on Long Island after TWA800 went down. I wouldn’t expect AF447 to be any different.
Those wild and crazy Brazilians … you never know what you’re gonna get!