Originally Posted by Bearfoil

Skeletal
I could bring up something I wrote earlier in the thread. "Flail" injuries, 200 knot impact, and chaotic cabin contents suggest a type of injury that is consistent with extreme trauma, and would prompt a rescuer to describe "skeletal" (bone exposed) trauma. Degloving. Originally, when considering ejection at altitude and great velocity, I thought degloving was a way to describe what Brazilians may have sussed as "Skeletal" (Flail). Just because one considers skeletal remains as being the result of decomposition, does not make it so. Osmotics and decomposition of connective tissue due breakdown of protein does not require bacteriostatic action necessarily.

Originally Posted by NYT -By WIL S. HYLTON- Published: May 4, 2011

On a Sunday morning in mid-March, I met with Dr. Francisco Sarmento, the doctor who presided over the Flight 447 autopsies. This turned out to be a strange time to visit. Two days before I met with Sarmento, the morgue where the autopsies took place was shut down by inspectors, citing “blood on the walls,” “corpses stored on top of each other on shelves and on the floor,” “a strong stench of putrefaction” and a parade of other horrors, like a corpse “being dragged across the floor by two employees.” (The morgue has since reopened.

Sarmento’s office in Recife turned out to be only somewhat more presentable. The floors were made of thin plastic that sagged under my feet as I walked, and the exterior windows were so heavily barred that it was difficult to see outside, but the tropical heat blasted in where panes were either broken or missing, giving the effect of a giant air-conditioner in reverse. It was easy to imagine that such a place, an underfinanced facility in a poor part of the world, might have trouble maintaining standards.

Sarmento is a big man, 6-foot-2 and slightly hunched, with a sad, doughy face all gathered up in worry. The crisis at the morgue had kept him from sleep, and he smiled wearily as he offered his hand. We took our seats by a table in his office, and he began to explain the crisis from two years earlier, with the fall of Flight 447.

“When we first found out, we were afraid,” he said. “We didn’t have space for 228 bodies. There were 33 nationalities on board, so we had to cooperate with other countries. We needed fingerprints, dental records, pictures of tattoos. We contacted Interpol right away, and they sent two people to work here and make the connection with other countries.”
Now Sarmento held up a finger with a look of irritation. “After one week,” he said, “the French government called and asked to send a representative to observe the autopsies.” Much of the forensic work took place at another site, but final examinations of the bodies were done in Recife. “When they got here,” Sarmento continued, “it was 20 specialists who wanted to do the autopsies by themselves. Only them. We couldn’t allow that. So I allowed one person from Interpol to be in the autopsy room and one person from the French government. Of course, this became a diplomatic issue.”

He reached for a large projector on the table and flipped it on with a hum. The far wall lighted up, and we began viewing images from the autopsies. “We took pictures of everything,” Sarmento said, scrolling through pictures of watches, necklaces, earrings and rings, still clinging to blue-green wrists and necks. “We were able to make all of the identifications.” As the images flashed by, he added: “All the autopsies were observed by the French and by Interpol. Not one country, not one family, complained about the identifications.”

After a while, Sarmento flipped off the projector and pushed away from the table in his chair. “Ninety percent of the passengers had fractures in the arms and legs,” he said. “Many of them also had trauma in the chest, in the abdomen, in the cranium. We didn’t find anybody burned.” He leaned forward in his seat and wrapped his arms around his knees. “They were like this,” he said, holding the crash position and looking into my eyes. Then he sat up quickly and held his hand flat above the table. “When they hit,” he said, slamming it down, “fractures. I believe the pilot tried to land in the water. This is consistent with the fractures. But when the bodies arrived, the lungs were already in a state of decomposition. We didn’t have conditions to see if anyone drowned.”

This hung in the air for a moment as I considered what he was suggesting.
“So it’s possible that some of them were still alive?” I asked.

Sarmento nodded. “Most died on impact,” he said. “Some could have survived.”

Originally Posted by NY Times

After a while, Sarmento flipped off the projector and pushed away from the table in his chair. “Ninety percent of the passengers had fractures in the arms and legs,” he said. “Many of them also had trauma in the chest, in the abdomen, in the cranium. We didn’t find anybody burned.”

Originally Posted by fyrefli

Think you probably need to google flail injuries (or similar). Seems perfectly consistent to me (says someone lucky enough to have survived flail chest and a catalogue of other injuries in a high-speed smash nine months ago)

Originally Posted by Rob21 (Post 6433766)

According to comments from the Brazilian rescue team, most of the 50 bodies recovered had no clothes on.
This was confirmed by forensics held in Brazil.

If this is true, what kind of wind (or water) velocity can tear clothes off ?

Originally Posted by Rob21

According to comments from the Brazilian rescue team, most of the 50 bodies recovered had no clothes on.
This was confirmed by forensics held in Brazil.

If this is true, what kind of wind (or water) velocity can tear clothes off ?

Originally Posted by takata (Post 6433818)

Hi,
One may look at Sullenberger's case and notice that communication with the cabin was barely nil until the last seconds of the flight before ditching, even if the decision to ditch in the Hudson was already taken a few minutes earlier. It seems that no passenger ever had enough time to find and wear its life jacket when the "brace for impact" order came from the captain's call.

Originally Posted by infrequentflyer789

In fact, very few of them (6% according to the report) had life jackets even when they had evacuated out onto the wings, over half managed to grab a seat cushion though... Who knows why - they were very lucky though as a result, the Hudson is not a very benign swimming environment at that time of year.

Originally Posted by infrequentflyer789

I doubt ditching was contemplated - deciding to ditch implies some semblance of controlled flight, of which there is no evidence. They had speed to the end - just not forwards.