A New Tool for Coding and Interpreting Injuries in Fatal Airplane Crashes: The Crash Injury Pattern Assessment Tool Application to the Air France Flight AF447 Disaster (Rio de Janeiro–Paris), 1st of June 2009†
Corresponding Author
Yves Schuliar M.D., Ph.D.
Forensic and Criminal Intelligence Agency of the French Gendarmerie, 1 blvd Sueur, 93110 Rosny-sous-Bois, France
Laboratory of Medical Ethics and Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Paris-Descartes University, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006 Paris, France
Additional information and reprint requests:
Yves Schuliar, M.D., Ph.D.
Forensic and Criminal Intelligence Agency of the French Gendarmerie
1 blvd Sueur, 93110, Rosny-sous-Bois
France
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorStéphane Chapenoire M.D., Ph.D.
Forensic and Criminal Intelligence Agency of the French Gendarmerie, 1 blvd Sueur, 93110 Rosny-sous-Bois, France
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorAlain Miras M.D., Ph.D.
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorBenjamin Contrand M.Sc.
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorEmmanuel Lagarde Ph.D.
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Yves Schuliar M.D., Ph.D.
Forensic and Criminal Intelligence Agency of the French Gendarmerie, 1 blvd Sueur, 93110 Rosny-sous-Bois, France
Laboratory of Medical Ethics and Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Paris-Descartes University, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006 Paris, France
Additional information and reprint requests:
Yves Schuliar, M.D., Ph.D.
Forensic and Criminal Intelligence Agency of the French Gendarmerie
1 blvd Sueur, 93110, Rosny-sous-Bois
France
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorStéphane Chapenoire M.D., Ph.D.
Forensic and Criminal Intelligence Agency of the French Gendarmerie, 1 blvd Sueur, 93110 Rosny-sous-Bois, France
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorAlain Miras M.D., Ph.D.
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorBenjamin Contrand M.Sc.
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorEmmanuel Lagarde Ph.D.
ISPED - Inserm U897, Injury Prevention and Control, 146, rue Léo-Saignat - Case 11, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
For investigation of air disasters, crash reconstruction is obtained using data from flight recorders, physical evidence from the site, and injuries patterns of the victims. This article describes a new software, Crash Injury Pattern Assessment Tool (CIPAT), to code and analyze injuries. The coding system was derived from the Abbreviated Injury Score (AIS). Scores were created corresponding to the amount of energy required causing the trauma (ER), and the software was developed to compute summary variables related to the position (assigned seat) of victims. A dataset was built from the postmortem examination of 154/228 victims of the Air France disaster (June 2009), recovered from the Atlantic Ocean after a complex and difficult task at a depth of 12790 ft. The use of CIPAT allowed to precise cause and circumstances of deaths and confirmed major dynamics parameters of the crash event established by the French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authority.
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