« Making sense of the multimillion-dollar body snatchers | Main | Dr. Wecht on CNN discussing John Karr »

August 17, 2006

Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Aug. 15

Dr. Wecht was back on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith discussing the crash of Flight 522 in Greece. Greek officials have theorized as many as six people may have been alive at the time of the crash, but both Dr. Wecht and former NTSB chairman Jim Burnett doubt that was actually the case.

000056

"I find it very difficult to believe that that would be the case, because there was, what, about 35, 40 minutes in which the plane was on autopilot. If the crash had occurred within a matter of some minutes, then you could have that kind of disparity in terms of mortality, some people having bad lungs and bad heart, and other people being in great health.

But with that passage of time, I would think that the environment would have come to be pretty much the same for everybody. That would have been an extremely cold situation, temperatures maybe minus 40 degrees, if there was a gaping hole or a significant hole in the cabin. The depressurization, I think, would have been even more significant. The fact the co-pilot was slumped over and the pilot wasn‘t to be seen, perhaps on the floor, leads one to believe that there was a problem obviously with oxygen supply.

With regard to the coroner‘s statement that six people were alive, I‘m puzzled by that. The only way in which you can ascertain life in that kind of a situation would be to find evidence of a vital reaction, that is, the body‘s defense mechanisms. And they don‘t kick in for some minutes. The other way to find out whether someone was alive is to detect carbon monoxide. If there was a fire after the plane landed, and if the people were alive, and they kept breathing, even if unconscious, then there would have been CO.

So—but for six people to have been alive, and 115 people to have died, that seems a bit incredulous."

Here's the complete excerpt »

NEWS FEEDS

RSS 1.0
RSS 2.0
Atom

CATEGORIES

Ballistics
Beltway Sniper
Chandra Levy
Cliff Baxter
Conferences
CSI
Daniel Smith
Danielle van Dam
DNA Testing
Flight 522
Homicides
Human Remains
JFK
JonBenet Ramsey
Judicial
Katrina
Laci Peterson
Manadel al-Jamad
Media Alerts
Mortal Evidence
O.J. Simpson
Positional Asphyxiation
Speaking Engagements
Taser
Taylor Behl
Terri Shiavo
Time of Death
Tracing Evidence
Tsunami
Wecht Institute

MONTHLY ARCHIVES

September 2006
August 2006
March 2006
January 2006
December 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
April 2005
March 2005
January 2005
December 2004
October 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
March 2004
February 2004
December 2003
November 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
January 2003
October 2002
August 2002
May 2002
April 2002