RedWine
09-19-2007, 07:11 AM
PHUKET, Thailand - Officials from Israel and Iran put aside political animosity Tuesday to work together in using Israeli forensics expertise to identify their dead from the crash of a jetliner on this Thai resort island.
A Thai aviation official, meanwhile, revealed that half of the Phuket airport's wind-shear warning devices were not working at the time of Sunday's crash. He said the outage could have contributed to the disaster.
Six Israelis and 18 Iranians were among the 89 people killed when the One-Two-Go Airlines jet crashed and burned while trying to land in heavy rain and wind carrying 130 passengers and crew.
Relations are minimal and tense between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic — whose president once denied the Holocaust — but diplomats from both nations shrugged off any suggestion the antagonism would hinder efforts to help grieving families.
"It's human nature to help in solving this problem as soon as possible," Safdar Shafiee from the Iranian Embassy in Bangkok said after shaking hands with Yaki Oved, head representative of Israeli police in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
"In situations like this you forget the division," Oved said. "The main thing is to help. You don't think about the politics."
Shafiee said 15 of the dead Iranians had been identified, but fingerprints or DNA samples to be sent from relatives in Iran would be needed to try to identify the remaining three.
"He told our delegation how they were worried about their missing. I told him we can help him," Oved said, referring to an Israeli forensics team that came to Thailand.
The team, from an emergency rescue service, has long experience in dealing with victims of traumatic injuries from the decades of Arab-Israeli conflict. It will try to match bodies with dental records, fingerprints, DNA and distinguishing features described by relatives.
"We always are willing to help people in need, and it includes, I guess, the Iranians also," said Lior Weintraub, spokesman for the Israeli government delegation in Phuket.
Shafiee, the Iranian official, said it was natural for people to work together after a humanitarian disaster. "I think there is no difference between the humans. All of them are humans and every nation can give any help that they can," he said.
Investigators have said wind shear — a sudden change in either wind speed or direction in an aircraft's flight path that can destabilize a plane — was among the possible causes of the crash.
Vuttichai Singhamanee, director of the flight standards bureau of Transport Ministry's Aviation Authority Department, said Tuesday that half of the airport's solar-powered wind-shear sensors weren't operating because they ran out of stored power during the overcast weather.
"Three out of six low-level wind shear alert systems were not working at the time," he said.
Vuttichai said that could have made it difficult for the Indonesian pilot, Arief Mulyadi, to judge whether it was safe to land. Officials earlier had said only that the control tower warned the pilot of wind shear.
Kajit Habnanonda, president of Orient-Thai Airlines, which owns One-Two-Go, already pointed to wind shear as a possible factor and on Tuesday he defended the pilot — who died in the crash — as "one of our best."
"He was very experienced, patient and very decisive," Kajit told The Bangkok Post.
A Thai aviation official, meanwhile, revealed that half of the Phuket airport's wind-shear warning devices were not working at the time of Sunday's crash. He said the outage could have contributed to the disaster.
Six Israelis and 18 Iranians were among the 89 people killed when the One-Two-Go Airlines jet crashed and burned while trying to land in heavy rain and wind carrying 130 passengers and crew.
Relations are minimal and tense between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic — whose president once denied the Holocaust — but diplomats from both nations shrugged off any suggestion the antagonism would hinder efforts to help grieving families.
"It's human nature to help in solving this problem as soon as possible," Safdar Shafiee from the Iranian Embassy in Bangkok said after shaking hands with Yaki Oved, head representative of Israeli police in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
"In situations like this you forget the division," Oved said. "The main thing is to help. You don't think about the politics."
Shafiee said 15 of the dead Iranians had been identified, but fingerprints or DNA samples to be sent from relatives in Iran would be needed to try to identify the remaining three.
"He told our delegation how they were worried about their missing. I told him we can help him," Oved said, referring to an Israeli forensics team that came to Thailand.
The team, from an emergency rescue service, has long experience in dealing with victims of traumatic injuries from the decades of Arab-Israeli conflict. It will try to match bodies with dental records, fingerprints, DNA and distinguishing features described by relatives.
"We always are willing to help people in need, and it includes, I guess, the Iranians also," said Lior Weintraub, spokesman for the Israeli government delegation in Phuket.
Shafiee, the Iranian official, said it was natural for people to work together after a humanitarian disaster. "I think there is no difference between the humans. All of them are humans and every nation can give any help that they can," he said.
Investigators have said wind shear — a sudden change in either wind speed or direction in an aircraft's flight path that can destabilize a plane — was among the possible causes of the crash.
Vuttichai Singhamanee, director of the flight standards bureau of Transport Ministry's Aviation Authority Department, said Tuesday that half of the airport's solar-powered wind-shear sensors weren't operating because they ran out of stored power during the overcast weather.
"Three out of six low-level wind shear alert systems were not working at the time," he said.
Vuttichai said that could have made it difficult for the Indonesian pilot, Arief Mulyadi, to judge whether it was safe to land. Officials earlier had said only that the control tower warned the pilot of wind shear.
Kajit Habnanonda, president of Orient-Thai Airlines, which owns One-Two-Go, already pointed to wind shear as a possible factor and on Tuesday he defended the pilot — who died in the crash — as "one of our best."
"He was very experienced, patient and very decisive," Kajit told The Bangkok Post.