Use of radiographic atlases in a mass fatality.

In May and June of 1996, a forensic anthropology team from the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the University of Florida identified 9 of 10 juveniles from the crash of ValuJet 592. The team relied primarily on a radiographic atlas developed and used by clinical practitioners to determine skeletal age. Postmortem radiographs of the juvenile victims were compared with radiographic standards to determine skeletal age. Skeletal age was then compared to a passenger list indicating the sex, weight, height, and chronological age of each individual. Tentative identifications based on the atlas method were organized into an exclusion matrix. Final identifications were based on this assessment in conjunction with other anthropological data such as appearance and fusion of ossification centers and estimation of stature.