International disaster identification report. Investigative and dental aspects.

This meeting, held in October 1980 in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, was a very serious effort to begin international cooperation in a much needed area: disaster investigation and identification. Under the leadership of Col. Arie van den Bos of the Royal Police of the Netherlands, the work was accomplished with representatives and observers from many major countries represented. Efforts were made to solve the enigma of international cooperation. A plane crash of an airline of a major country in a distant country can be properly investigated only with the cooperation of the carrier and the country in which the tragedy occurred. The International Academy of Legal Medicine and Social Medicine devoted a 3-day program to the study of this problem during their last international meeting in Lyon, France, and it will be discussed further in Vienna in 1982 under the leadership of Prof. Wilhelm Holczabek. The experience of Norwegian investigators is mentioned as an example of the type of problems encountered with foreign nationals involved in a crash in the country, or a disaster involving a ship or a oil platform where foreign nationals are working, or in a tragedy such as the propylene explosion in Tarragona, Spain, which resulted in more than 200 tourists from many countries dying in the fire, many bodies burned beyond recognition.