![]() Hideously, the men carried out all this grisly work in the same pair of gloves which, as the days passed, became clogged with the fluids and grease of human remains. In this way, the main danger of misidentification was avoided." Likewise, loose items such as wallets, passports or other things that provide identification are only linked if they are physically attached to a body. "Specifically, no attempt was made at the scene to link body parts with those found nearby. "Any item of human remains, no matter how small, was treated as a 'body'," says Mitchell, who later travelled the world studying and sharing his knowledge of how best to deal with mass casualties. And if there was any human flesh, sinews or even the smallest scrapings, they scooped them up, bagged them and meticulously numbered them. If there was a crevice – and some were 30ft (9.14m) deep – the searchers went down it. Unfortunately, they had been given clear plastic body bags which meant that everyone who handled them later had to see what was inside "a very early lesson was to use opaque body bags," says Leighton. The men used the system that they had just been taught on the DVI course – which was to locate, photograph, tag and then bag the bodies. When I heard about the crash I immediately had a sinking feeling I was going to have to get involved." "There was definitely a feeling among us as we did it that we were never going to need to know this stuff. "The course was actually in preparation for dealing with bodies in an event such as an earthquake," says Stuart Leighton, a constable with three years' experience on the beat in Wellington. Woefully inexperienced, they were picked for the job because, by coincidence, the very same day of the crash, they had just completed a short course in Disaster Victim Identification (DVI). Many had never even seen snow before, and one had only just turned 22. ![]() It comprised 11 policemen – ordinary coppers whose jobs were in 1970s Christchurch and Wellington. This was an era before organised search and rescue teams existed, so they cast around amongst their own and came up with the best they could muster. It quickly became apparent that it was up to the New Zealand authorities to assemble a team to bring back the bodies.
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