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In St. Petersburg, the identification of the bodies of those killed in the crash of the Airbus A321 of the Kogalymavia company on the Sinai Peninsula has begun. According to representatives of the operational headquarters, the process of identifying all the bodies can take up to several weeks.
On Tuesday morning in St. Petersburg, a second plane landed with the remains of the dead, while a search operation is still underway at the crash site.
Alexander Agafonov, head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry's task force on Sinai, said that on Monday, more than 100 items of personal belongings of passengers were found, including two cameras, two tablets, four cell phones, five passports and one ID card of a crew member.
All of these items can further help in identifying the bodies of those killed in a plane crash.
The BBC Russian service asked experts to clarify how the process of identifying the victims occurs in such cases.
"This is a very time consuming process."
Image copyright Reuters"Everything is very simple - piles of bodies lie, and experts are trying to group them according to some parameters, but with such destruction, all this is very relative, so this terrible mess people go through and try to find out - by clothes, by body fragments, which -that tattoos, some tattoos, maybe some features - only in this way, "- explained to the BBC Russian service the head of the Department of Forensic Medical Examination of the First Moscow State Medical University named after I. M. Sechenov Yuri Pigolkin.
"And so - people are in a state of shock. Firstly, it is simply very difficult to identify a dead body - the color changes, and if it is also damaged, then this is a very laborious process, extremely difficult," the expert says.
"Then, when it has already been recognized that identification is impossible, then a genetic study is carried out. Genetic research is carried out, comparing genotypes, blood is taken on gauze, if the oral cavity is preserved, saliva can be taken. In a complex, both saliva, blood, and bones Now, genetic material has been collected from relatives - a database is created, and then these samples are entered into this database. Then, when there is a database, the genes obtained from the samples are compared in length with those in the database, "- says Pigolkin.
An Egyptian forensic scientist who took part in the procedure for inspecting the crash site told reporters that the nature of the injuries to the bodies of the passengers of the crashed A321 may indicate that an explosion occurred on board the liner before the collision with the ground.
"A large number of separate fragments of bodies may indicate that a strong explosion occurred on board even before the collision with the ground," - quotes the expert agency RIA Novosti.
Given the condition of most of the bodies, DNA testing may be required to determine the identity of the victims, he said.
DNA Examination: Lessons from MH17
The identification of the bodies of the passengers killed in July 2014 was carried out by specialists from the Netherlands Forensic Institute. The website of this organization identifies the victims.
In particular, the fingerprints and records of the victims' dentists are being examined.
The data on personal belongings of passengers is also taken into account - for example, about their clothes, jewelry.
According to the Institute of Forensic Science in the Netherlands, DNA testing is only used by specialists if identification cannot be obtained from the dentist's records. In the process of identification, DNA samples are taken from the deceased - fragments of muscle tissue, bone tissue and fragments of teeth.
"DNA is best protected from external influences in parts of the teeth," the institute's website says. After that, specialists draw up DNA profiles of the victims.
DNA samples (saliva sample) are also taken from direct relatives. Direct relatives are the parents, children, brothers and sisters of the deceased, their DNA is much closer than that of distant relatives, experts explain.
In addition, medical examiners receive personal items from victims, such as combs or toothbrushes, which may contain samples of their DNA. But the data obtained with their help cannot always be used - sometimes it is impossible to determine to whom exactly this or that item belonged, and whether someone else has used this item.
That is, it is a complex and complex process: the DNA profiles of the deceased are compared with the DNA profiles of their relatives, as well as with DNA profiles made on the basis of the study of their personal belongings, and they are analyzed using a special program.
Identification of the remains of mass victims of a terrorist act in the Moscow metro - the experience of a comprehensive forensic research
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Identification of the remains of mass victims of a terrorist act in the Moscow metro - the experience of a comprehensive forensic research / Ivanov P.L., Shigeev V.B., Isaenko M.V. // Mat. VI All-Russian. Congress of forensic physicians. - M.-Tyumen, 2005.
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Identification of the remains of mass victims of a terrorist act in the Moscow metro - the experience of a comprehensive forensic research / Ivanov P.L., Shigeev V.B., Isaenko M.V. // Mat. VI All-Russian. Congress of forensic physicians. - M.-Tyumen, 2005.
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/ Ivanov P.L., Shigeev V.B., Isaenko M.V. // Mat. VI All-Russian. Congress of forensic physicians. - M.-Tyumen, 2005.
Introduction
In Moscow on February 6, 2004 at 08:00 32 minutes on the stretch between the stations of the Moscow Metro. IN AND. Lenin "Avtozavodskaya - Paveletskaya" of the Gorkovsko-Zamoskvoretskaya line, an explosion occurred in the second head carriage of train route No. 71, as a result of which several dozen people died and about 180 people were injured, causing various harm to health.
The Moscow prosecutor's office received applications from citizens about the search for missing relatives, who, presumably, could be at the time of the explosion in the indicated subway train car.
At the scene of the explosion, about two dozen conditionally whole bodies of the dead and many fragments of biological tissues and body parts from unidentified victims were seized and taken to the morgues of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Moscow Department of Health.
The investigating authorities, after conducting an external examination of the bodies and visual identification of corpses with the participation of relatives of the missing persons, identified the bodies of some of the victims. At the same time, most of the fragmentary remains found at the site of the explosion could not be identified by identification.
For these circumstances, within the framework of the investigation of the criminal case initiated into the explosion, forensic medical examinations were ordered, namely, a forensic medical examination of a corpse and a molecular genetic examination of material evidence.
Expert research in these two areas has so far been carried out relatively independently of one another.
Previously, we have developed the basic principles of using molecular genetic individualizing systems for the purposes of forensic identification of bodies of victims in cases of mass human victims. The results obtained in these works and the accumulated methodological experience have significantly expanded the possibilities of expert research in terms of personal identification in the investigation of emergencies with mass casualties.
Nevertheless, the practice of the examinations carried out has shown that in such complex cases, the solution of the forensic medical problem of identifying the bodies of the dead, carried out in isolation at different levels, without proper interconnection of forensic and molecular genetic methodological approaches, does not always turn out to be quite effective.
Therefore, in this case, we decided to conduct expert research in these two main areas in a coordinated manner - as a single comprehensive study. This work is devoted to the development of an algorithm for such a complex application of classical forensic methods and the latest technologies of molecular genetic individualization.
Research tactics and methods
The bodies and fragments of the bodies of the victims were found at the scene of the explosion, they were seized, numbered and placed in 63 bags.
First, a forensic examination of the corpse was carried out for each original object. At this stage, the questions posed to the expert's permission were typical:
- What bodily injuries are there on the corpse, their nature, quantity, degree of harm to health, the mechanism of damage formation.
- What is the direction of the wound channels, are there traces of metallization, foreign objects, if so, what are their properties.
- The cause of death of the victim when the death occurred.
In the case of fragmented remains, the list of questions has been expanded:
- Are biological objects part of the human body?
- Gender, age of the victim.
- Which of the fragments of corpses belong to one person.
The forensic diagnosis, medical death certificate and the expert's conclusions regarding the answer to the first four questions were also typical. For example:
- “Explosive injury, combined-combined shock-wave, gas-detonation, fragmentation trauma, multiple blind and penetrating wounds, destruction of the head, barotrauma of the lungs, bruised and lacerated-bruised wounds, fractures, ruptures and destruction of internal organs, separation of limbs with foci of crushing soft tissues, thermal burn ".
- “Combined concomitant body trauma; attack by using explosives ”.
- "Death was due to explosive injury."
- "The objects of the study were fragments of the human body"
- "The fragmentation of human bodies is in vivo and occurred at the moment of the explosive device detonation, as evidenced by the nature of the damage to the bodies and clothing."
The expert's conclusions on the results of the forensic medical examination of the corpse were given 63 - according to the number of the initial objects of the study.
To answer the last two questions (regarding the sex and belonging of the fragments to one body), which have an identification semantic load, a forensic medical examination of the corpse was carried out. Determination of age and sex was carried out by the method of radiography of the hands, which provides for the study of the age characteristics of the nail phalanges of the fingers and the study of the osteometric parameters of the middle phalanges of the 2nd and 4th fingers. The data obtained were also used to determine the belonging of body parts to one person, an example of such a study is illustrated in Fig. 1.
The described studies made it possible to proceed to the solution of the identification problems themselves. Identification studies were carried out in relation to the bodies of the deceased, their parts and fragments. It should be noted that at the initial stage of identification work, on the basis of Article 193 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the investigating authorities carried out a detailed external examination of the bodies and visual identification of corpses with the participation of relatives and acquaintances of the missing persons. Identification was carried out:
- Facial features;
- By clothes and shoes;
- For decorations and other items;
- For tattoos and birthmarks;
- Make-up;
- By physique;
- According to the color and characteristics of the hair;
- By the shape of the teeth;
- For congenital and intravital defects of body parts, scars.
The identification data obtained at the stage of identification made it possible, in some cases, to identify unidentified body fragments during the forensic determination of the belonging of body parts to one person. Representative data are shown in Table. 1.
Further, all fragmentary remains (including identified body fragments) were sent for molecular genetic identification research. DNA preparations isolated from soft tissue samples were analyzed.
In the course of these studies, the genetic sex of the fragmentary remains was established and then either indirect identification was carried out - by a comparative analysis of their genomic characteristics with the DNA of close relatives of persons presumably killed in the explosion, or a direct comparison with the DNA of previously identified dead with detachments and defects in body parts.
Chromosomal DNA PDAP was typed by polymerase chain reaction in monolocal format using enzymatic amplification systems for VNTR and STR loci of chromosomal DNA.
Results and discussion
In the course of the forensic medical examination, the deceased, their parts and fragments received registration numbers of the morgue. There were significantly more of them than the original 63, namely, 102 objects. This is due to the fact that several unrelated objects were often registered under one initial number (see example - Table 2).
At the stage of identification, 38 remains were identified. These were:
- 16 whole corpses;
- 4 conditionally intact corpses;
- 18 body fragments.
A total of 35 victims were identified based on the identification results.
Meanwhile, it is known that identification is not an unconditionally reliable way of identifying a person. This is especially true for heavily damaged bodies and fragmented remains. This was clearly confirmed when, due to newly discovered circumstances, it was investigatively established that in 2 cases out of 18 fragments of bodies were identified erroneously. (The results of identification of fragmentary remains are given in Table 3; here the lines corresponding to these erroneously identified fragments are highlighted in gray).
Consequently, after the correction of the identification results, not 35, but 33 dead (in total - 36 remains) could be considered established. Another 2 fragments were identified in a forensic study - when determining the belonging of body parts to one person (see example in Fig. 1 and Tables 1 and 4). In all other cases, identification and methods of medico-forensic identification turned out to be ineffective (this is illustrated in the right part of Table 2).
Thus, at this stage 64 fragments of corpses remained unidentified.
These 64 objects, as well as 16 fragmentary remains, the belonging of which was established by identification and 2 fragments identified during the forensic examination, were sent for molecular genetic research. It should be noted that the decision to send the already identified 18 fragmentary remains for additional identification research was dictated by the identified identification errors and, accordingly, the objective need to increase the evidentiary value of the identification inference.
Also, for genetic research, biological samples were taken from conditionally identified whole corpses in order to check the possible belonging of any of the identified fragments to these bodies with detachments and defects in body parts.
The expert work was carried out in stages.
At the first stage, the laboratory received samples of biological tissues from fragments of corpses according to the autopsy reports. A total of 86 biological objects were received for genetic research.
For the permission of the examination, specific questions were raised as to who the fragments of the bodies belong to - to fragmented corpses, whose identity has been established, or to other persons:
- Do any of the body fragments seized during the inspection of the scene belong to the victim (s)?
- Do any of the biological fragments seized during the inspection of the scene belong to the corpse of an unknown man / woman?
In the course of the study, by means of a comparative analysis of the PDAF profiles of DNA preparations isolated from the samples of biological tissues from the fragments of corpses presented for the study, conditional groups of genetic identity were established - on the basis of the revealed formal coincidence of sex and individual allelic combinations of the objects of study, which makes it possible to assume the genetic identity of the investigated objects within each such group, that is, the belonging of fragments to one body (see Table 5 as an example).
In the table shown in Table. Example 5 shows that as part of one of these groups, the PDAF profile of a DNA preparation isolated from a muscle tissue sample from the corpse of an unknown man, identified as I-kin A.V.(No. 321) reveals a formal coincidence with the PDAF profiles of DNA preparations isolated from 8 other fragments of corpses. It was also found that the PDAF profiles of DNA preparations isolated from all 9 samples that make up this group of conditionally identical remains do not show a match DNA preparations isolated from any other fragments submitted for research. This allows us to assume the genetic identity of all these fragments. , and, accordingly, their belonging to one body, namely - I-kinu A.V.
The calculated conditional probability of the genetic identity of all these biological objects is at least 99.999%. It is this value that characterizes the probability that all investigated fragments really belong to the body of the deceased. A. V. I-kina
Note that this study confirmed the results of identification of fragments No. 321 and 311-b (see lines 1 and 2 in Table 5 and lines 9 and 10 in Table 3).
At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that this group of genetically identical fragments did not include fragment No. 325/2, which, according to the results of the medical and forensic examination, allegedly also belongs to the body of the deceased A. V. I-kina(see Table 4). However, the data obtained clearly showed that fragment No. 325/2 has different genotypic characteristics and refers to another person (see Table 5).
This result, in principle, is not unexpected. It illustrates the imperfection of the forensic identification methods used, and reminds of the need to approach with caution when evaluating the results of these studies.
In total, among 82 fragments, 22 groups of genetically identical remains were identified. This means that the investigated fragmentary remains belong to 22 deceased.
Of these, for 13 people, 16 body fragments were identified earlier at the stage of identification (see Table 3). These data were confirmed.
Another 49 body fragments belonging to these 13 victims were identified as a result of a molecular genetic study - through direct comparative analysis of genotypic characteristics.
For 5 samples from the bodies of 5 victims, whose identity was established earlier at the stage of identification, no additional homologous fragments were found.
The identity of the remaining 4 victims (12 fragments) was not identified at this stage. They were identified at the next stage using a different methodological approach - by verifying consanguinity.
At this stage, the following question was posed for the permission of the experts:
Whether any of the fragments of corpses seized during the inspection of the scene of the incident belong to the wanted persons who could have been at the time of the explosion in the indicated subway train car, whose fate is still unknown.
Blood samples from relatives of 4 missing persons were delivered to the laboratory. The analytical variants of kinship that entered the development are presented in Table. 6.
This approach, namely, indirect, mediated through relatives identification through verification of consanguineous relations, for objective reasons, required an expansion of the panel of test systems used. ID cards were developed for each wanted person as described earlier. Here, to solve the expert problem, it was necessary to analyze up to 16 loci of chromosomal DNA (see Table 7).
As a result, the belonging of another 7 out of 12 fragments was established - in total, the remains of 3 people. (The fourth wanted person, as it was later established by the investigation, had nothing to do with this event, since he was not in the subway car at the time of the explosion).
The one remaining fragmented corpse, represented by five scattered fragments, did not belong to any of the wanted citizens. Nevertheless, his identity was also established: molecular genetic identification was carried out upon providing the experts with additional comparison samples during the development of one of the investigative versions.
These studies allowed us to move on to the final stage of the work. A commission forensic medical examination was carried out on the materials of the criminal case. The following questions were put to the experts' permission:
- Is there any medical data allowing to determine the belonging of any fragments of corpses to the passenger of the carriage, which was carrying the explosive device at the time of the explosion;
- What was the location of the victims, whose corpses and fragments were examined earlier, in relation to the epicenter of the explosion;
- What is the total number of people killed in the explosion;
The forensic medical expert commission examined 63 expert reports (examination of corpses) and 25 expert reports based on the results of molecular genetic studies.
The effects of various damaging factors of the explosion (soot, explosive gases, shock and sound waves, fragments, secondary shells), established during the study of the corpses of victims, their parts and fragments, taking into account the known circumstances of the case, make it possible to categorically assert that the overwhelming majority of the victims were on close range of the explosion, with the exception of 2 victims - at the time of the detonation of the explosive device, they were at a short distance from the explosion. Moreover, part of the victims of the first group, with the greatest number of destruction, separation and defects of body parts, were in the so-called contact zone of the close range of the explosion. The explosive device used had a shell, it was stuffed with special striking elements - bolts and screws found in the bodies of 16 victims.
According to the conclusion of the explosive-technical examination, the epicenter of the explosion was located in the cabin of the head section of the car at a height of about 1-1.5 m above the floor level. This gave grounds to assume that the explosive device at the time of the explosion was on the passenger of the carriage.
An expert opinion was formulated that the man, whose corpse is represented by five scattered fragments (see Table 8), could presumably be the passenger of the carriage on which the explosive device was located at the time of the explosion. Formally, this version did not contradict the anatomical localization of the absolute defect of the affected (missing) part of the body: complete disintegration of tissues (crushing, spraying and scattering), located at the level of the pelvic bones (about 1 m from the floor level) and above, as well as the presence of soot and carboxyhemoglobin in the remaining damaged tissues characteristic of the contact explosion zone. Unfortunately, it was not possible to speak more categorically on the basis of the medical data available to the experts.
We made an attempt to answer the question about the orientation of the victims relative to the epicenter of the explosion. However, it was possible to express a well-grounded expert opinion only in isolated cases.
The following should be clarified here. In addition to the distance of the explosion, the properties and power of the explosive device, the conditions of injury also significantly affect the formation of the characteristics of explosive damage: the environment, the presence and properties of the obstacle, the confinement and configuration of the surrounding space. In the present expert case, a large number of people were in a confined and confined space, and when an explosive device was triggered, even being in one explosion zone, some victims could be an obstacle for others, which naturally distorts the true position and testifies to the objective complexity of the explosion picture. In addition, a complicating moment for resolving the issue of the location of the victims was the absence in the protocols of examinations of corpses at the scene of the data on the relative position of corpses and their parts in relation to the environment and the established epicenter of the explosion. All these circumstances made the task of establishing a specific distance or zone of explosion for each victim practically insoluble.
Summing up, we can say that the comprehensive expert work carried out turned out to be extremely effective.
Based on the results of forensic research and molecular genetic studies, the total number of people killed in the explosion was established. The 102 objects presented for examination belonged to 42 bodies, of which 21 were male and 20 were female. Thus, the total number of people killed in the explosion was 42 people - 21 men and 20 women.
All those killed in the explosion were identified.
Rice. 1 Forensic examination: comparative radiography of the phalanges of the fingers in order to determine the age, sex and belonging of body parts to one person.
From the expert's conclusion:
“… When examining the radiographs of the fingers of the left and right hands (objects 311 / a and 322), there is a similarity in the radiographic picture of the bone structure. The coincidence of gender, age, size of hands, osteometric indicators of their phalanges, X-ray picture of the structure of their bones indicates that these hands belong to one woman.
Table 1
Expert determination in a forensic study of the belonging of corpse fragments using identification data obtained at the stage of identification
Description of the object | Morgue registration number | The identity of the remains established by | ||
identified as K-in | ||||
identified as K-in | See Fig. 1: The coincidence of gender, age, size of hands (objects 311 / a and 322), osteometric parameters of their phalanges, X-ray picture of the structure of their bones indicates that these hands belong to one woman |
|||
not identified |
table 2
Objects of forensic medical research: fragments of the human body
№ | № | Act No. | Forensic description of the object | Affiliation | Affiliation |
| Scalp with hair | |||||
Skin flap of the left half of the face | |||||
Right lower limb to the upper third of the thigh | |||||
Fragment of a part of the thoracic and lumbar spine | |||||
Skin flap | |||||
Fragment of pubic articulation | |||||
Fragment of the foot | |||||
Muscles of the chest with the remnants of the ribs |
Table 3
Corpse number, | № | Affiliation |
||
Female left hand with the lower third of the forearm | ||||
Deformed male corpse without the right lower limb, pelvic bones, with partial loss of internal organs | ||||
Deformed male corpse without left upper limb and with partial loss of internal organs | ||||
Female left upper limb to the level of the upper third of the shoulder | ||||
Right upper and lower limbs with part of the trunk | ||||
Left female lower limb with part of the pelvis | ||||
Fragment of the left upper limb with part of the chest, left half of the head and internal organs | ||||
Female torso with the right side of the face, without the pelvis and lower limbs | ||||
Left upper limb with a skin flap of the neck and a deformed head with teeth | ||||
Right upper limb with part of the chest | ||||
Left lower limb with a skin flap of the trunk | ||||
Part of the trunk with the lower limbs and male genitals | ||||
Right upper and lower limbs with part of the chest and pelvis | ||||
Deformed fragment of a male head | ||||
Deformed corpse of a woman without right hand and forearm, with destruction of the head, pelvis, limbs | ||||
Muscles of the neck with remnants of the tongue and cartilage of the larynx |
Results of identification of fragments of corpses
Table 4
Expert determination in a forensic study of the belonging of corpse fragments using identification data obtained at the stage of identification.
Description of the object (corpses, fragments or parts) | Number of corpse, fragments or parts at the site of the explosion | Morgue registration number | The identity of the remains established by identification | The identity of the remains, established by medical and forensic research |
Male head with part of the chest and left upper limb | identified as I-kin | |||
Left male lower limb at the level of the hip joint | identified as I-kin | The coincidence and similarity of the sizes and individual characteristics of the left and right feet (objects 311 / b and 325/2), osteometric parameters of the metatarsal bones, the X-ray picture of the structure of their bones indicates that these feet belong to one person, a probable man. " |
||
Male right lower limb to the level of the hip joint | not identified |
Table 5
An example of identifying a group of conditional genetic identity - based on the revealed formal coincidence of sex (locus Amel) and the AFLP profiles of five chromosomal loci in DNA preparations from 9 objects of study
Reg. Object no. | Locus | ||||||
Male head with part of the chest and left upper limb, identified as a corpse I-kina A.V. | |||||||
Left male lower limb at the level of the hip joint, identified as a part of the body A. V. I-kina | |||||||
Fragment of the girdle of the lower extremities | |||||||
Muscle of the right lower limb | |||||||
Soft tissue | |||||||
Soft tissue | |||||||
Soft tissue | |||||||
Part of the stomach with the liver | |||||||
Skin flap |
The calculated conditional probability of the genetic identity of all these biological objects is at least 99.999%. It is this value that characterizes the probability that all the studied 9 fragments really belong to the body of the deceased. A. V. I-kina
Separately given PDAF profiles of five chromosomal loci in a DNA preparation from object no. 325/2, which was also identified as a body fragment on the basis of a forensic study A. V. I-kina(see Table 4). It can be seen that this object differs in all five established genotypic characteristics. Therefore, these are the remains of another person (man).
Table 6
Verification options for family ties to identify missing persons
Table 7
An example of identifying a missing person M-va A.M. by verifying family ties (mother-son option) - based on the revealed characteristic coincidence of the AFAF profiles of sixteen chromosomal loci in DNA preparations from the objects of study
The calculated conditional probability of the declared variant of genetic relationship for the indicated biological objects is not less than 99.90%.
| LOCUS | ||||||||||||||||
| D1S111 | D17S30 | THO1 | F13B | TPO X | CSF1PO | |||||||||||
Blood sample of N.M. Murashova | 37 | 24 , | 8 | 18 , | 4 , | 9.3 , | 11 , 10 | 10 | 17, 15 | 11 | 10 | 11 , | 12 , | 11 , | 4 , | 18, 16 |
Object number 333/1: | 37 , | 24 , | 8 | 18 , | 4 , | 9.3 , | 11, 10 | 10 | 17, 15 | 11 , | 10 , | 11 , | 12 , | 11 | 4 , | 18, 16 |
Original taken from valkiriarf c About what the bodies of passengers can tell about the plane crash
Outside the black box
Dennis Shanaghan works in a spacious second-floor facility where he lives with his wife, Maureen, ten minutes' drive from downtown Carlsbad, California. He has a quiet and sunlit office that makes it impossible to guess what a terrible job they do here. Shanaghan is an expert in personal injury. He devotes much of his time to studying wounds and fractures in living people. He is invited for consultations by companies that produce cars whose customers are suing on the basis of dubious reasons ("the seat belt broke," "I was not driving," etc.), which can be checked by the nature of their damage. But in parallel with this, he deals with dead bodies. In particular, he took part in the investigation into the circumstances of the crash of Flight 800 of Trans World Airlines.
The plane, which took off from the John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 17, 1996 in Paris, exploded in the air over the Atlantic Ocean near East Morich, New York. Eyewitness accounts were conflicting. Some claimed to have seen a rocket hit the plane. Traces of explosives were found in the wreckage, but no traces of the shell were found. (Later it turned out that the explosives were planted on the plane long before the crash - as part of a training program for sniffer dogs.) Theories about the involvement of government services in the explosion were spread. The investigation was delayed due to the lack of an answer to the main question: what (or who) dropped the plane from the sky to the ground?
Soon after the crash, Shanaghan flew to New York to examine the bodies of the victims and draw possible conclusions. Last spring I went to Carlsbad to meet him. I wanted to know how a person does this kind of work - scientifically and emotionally.
I had other questions as well. Shanaghan knows the ins and outs of the nightmare. He can tell in merciless medical details what happens to people in various disasters. He knows how they usually die, whether they know what is happening, and how (in a low-altitude crash) they could increase their chances of escape. I said that I would take an hour of his time away from him, but I stayed with him for five hours.
A crashed plane can usually tell its own story. Sometimes this story can be heard literally - as a result of transcribing the recordings of voices in the cockpit, sometimes conclusions can be drawn as a result of examining the broken and burned fragments of the crashed plane. But when a plane crashes into the ocean, its story can be incomplete and awkward. If the place of the fall is especially deep or the current is too strong and chaotic, the black box may not be found at all, and the fragments raised to the surface may not be enough to unambiguously clarify what happened on the plane a few minutes before the disaster. In such situations, specialists turn to what in textbooks on aviation pathological anatomy is called "human debris", that is, to the bodies of passengers. Unlike wings or fuselage fragments, bodies float to the surface of the water. Examining the injuries received by people (what their type, severity, which side of the body is affected) allows the expert to piece together the fragments of the terrible picture of what happened.
Shanaghan is waiting for me at the airport. He wears Dockers boots, a short-sleeved shirt, and aviator-style glasses. Hair is neatly parted. They look like a wig, but they are real. He is polite, discreet and very pleasant, reminds me of my familiar pharmacist Mike.
It does not at all look like the portrait that I have made in my head. I imagined an unfriendly, emotionless, possibly verbose person. I was planning to conduct an interview in the field, at the crash site of some plane. I pictured the two of us in a morgue temporarily built in a small town dance hall or in a university gym: he in a stained lab coat, me with my notebook. But that was before I realized that Shanaghan was not personally involved in autopsies. This is done by a group of medical experts from a morgue located near the crash site. Sometimes he still goes to the site and examines the bodies for one purpose or another, but still basically he works with ready-made autopsy results, correlating them with the passenger boarding scheme in order to identify the location of the source of damage. He informs me that to see him at work. at the scene of the accident, it is probably necessary to wait several years, since the causes of most of the disasters are quite obvious and to clarify them, it is not necessary to study the bodies of the victims.
When I tell him about my disappointment (because I am unable to report from the crash site), Shanaghan gives me a book called Aerospace Pathology, which, he assures me, has photographs of things that I could would be seen at the crash site. I open the book in the Body Layout section. Small black dots are scattered in the diagram showing the location of the aircraft fragments. From these points, lines are drawn to the descriptions taken out of the diagram: “brown leather shoes”, “co-pilot”, “fragment of the spine”, “stewardess”. Gradually, I get to the chapter that describes Shanagan's work ("The Nature of Injury to People in Plane Crashes"). Photo captions remind researchers, for example, that "extreme heat can create steam inside the skull, causing the skull to rupture, which could be confused with impact damage." It becomes clear to me that the black dots with the signatures give me an ample idea of the consequences of the disaster, as if I had visited the site of the plane crash.
In the TWA 800 crash, Shanaghan suspected a bomb blast was the cause of the crash. He analyzed the nature of the destruction of the bodies in order to prove that there was an explosion in the plane. If he found traces of explosives, he would try to establish where the bomb was planted in the plane. He takes a thick folder from a drawer and pulls out his group's report. Here - chaos and gore, the result of the largest plane crash of a passenger plane in numbers, diagrams, and diagrams. The nightmare has been transformed into something that can be discussed over a cup of coffee at the morning meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board. "4:19. In emerging victims, right-sided injuries prevail over left-sided injuries ”. "4:28. Hip fractures and horizontal damage to the base of the seats ”. I ask Shanagan if a businesslike and detached view of tragedy helps suppress what I think is natural emotional experience. He looks down at his hands, fingers entwined, resting on the Flight 800 crash file.
“Maureen can tell you that I did not handle myself well in those days. Emotionally, it was extremely difficult, especially due to the large number of young people on that plane. The French club of one of the universities flew to Paris. Young couples. It was very difficult for all of us. " Shanaghan adds that this is an atypical state of the experts at the scene of the plane crash. “In general, people do not want to dive too deeply into tragedy, so jokes and free communication are a fairly common demeanor. But not in this case. "
For Shanaghan, the most unpleasant thing about this case was that most of the bodies were practically intact. “The intactness of the bodies worries me more than its absence,” he says. Things that are difficult for most of us to look at - severed arms, legs, body pieces - are a fairly familiar sight for Shanagan. “In that case, it's just a cloth. You can make your thoughts flow and do your job. ” It is blood, but it does not cause sorrow. You can get used to working with blood. And with broken lives, no. Shanaghan works just like any pathologist. “You concentrate on individual parts, not on the person as a person. At autopsy, you describe the eyes, then the mouth. You do not stand next to him and do not think that this man is the father of four children. This is the only way to suppress your emotions. "
It's funny, but it is the intactness of the bodies that can serve as a clue to whether there was an explosion or not. We are on the sixteenth page of the report. Clause 4.7: “Fragmentation of bodies”. “People near the epicenter of the explosion are torn to pieces,” Dennis quietly informs me. This person has an amazing ability to talk about such things in a way that does not look overly patronizing or overly colorful. If there was a bomb on the plane, Shanaghan would have found a cluster of "highly fragmented bodies" corresponding to the passengers at the center of the explosion. But most of the bodies were intact, which is easy to see from the report if you know the color code used by the experts. To facilitate the work of people like Shanaghan, who have to analyze a large amount of information, medical experts use a code like this. Specifically, the bodies of the passengers on Flight 800 were marked green (intact), yellow (head bruised or one limb missing), blue (two limbs missing, head broken or intact), or red (three or more limbs missing or complete fragmentation of the body).
Another way to confirm the presence of an explosion is to study the number and trajectory of the movement of "foreign bodies" pierced into the bodies of the victims. This is a routine analysis performed with an X-ray machine as part of an investigation into the cause of any plane crash. During the explosion, fragments of the bomb itself, as well as of nearby objects, fly to the sides, hitting people sitting around. The spread of these foreign bodies can shed light on the question of whether there was a bomb, and if so, where. If an explosion occurred, for example, in a toilet on the right side of an aircraft, people sitting facing the toilet would be injured in the front of their bodies. Passengers at the aisle on the opposite side would have been wounded in the right side. However, Shanagan did not find such injuries.
Some of the bodies bore traces of chemical burns. This served as the basis for the emergence of a version that the cause of the disaster was a collision with a rocket. It is true that chemical burns in plane crashes are usually caused by contact with highly corrosive fuel, but Shanaghan suspected that the burns were caused by people after the plane hit the water. Fuel spilled on the surface of the water corrodes the backs of bodies floating on the surface, but not the faces. To finally confirm the correctness of his version, Shanaghan checked that chemical burns were only on the bodies that surfaced and only on the back. If the explosion had occurred on the plane, the splashed fuel would have burned the faces and sides of the people, but not the backs, which were protected by the backs of the seats. So, no evidence of a missile collision.
Shanaghan also drew attention to the thermal burns caused by the flames. A diagram was attached to the report. Investigating the nature of the location of the burns on the body (in most cases, the front part of the body was burned), he was able to trace the movement of the fire along the plane. Then he found out how badly the seats of these passengers were burned - it turned out to be much stronger than the passengers themselves, and this meant that people were pushed out of their seats and thrown out of the plane literally seconds after the fire broke out. A version began to take shape that the fuel tank in the wing had exploded. The explosion occurred far enough from the passengers (and therefore the bodies remained intact), but it was strong enough to disrupt the integrity of the plane to the point that it collapsed, and people were pushed overboard.
I asked why the passengers were carried out of the plane, because they were wearing seat belts. Shanagan replied that when the integrity of the aircraft is violated, enormous forces begin to operate. Unlike a shell burst, the body usually remains intact, but a powerful wave is capable of pulling a person out of the chair. “These planes fly at over 500 kilometers per hour,” Shanaghan continues. - When a crack appears, the aerodynamic properties of the aircraft change. The motors are still pushing it forward, but it loses its stability. It starts spinning with monstrous strength. The crack widens and in five or six seconds the plane falls apart. My theory is that the plane fell apart quickly enough, the seat backs fell off, and people slipped out of the straps that held them.
The nature of the injuries experienced by the passengers on Flight 800 confirmed his theory: most people had massive internal trauma, which is usually seen, in Shanagan's words, when "hitting the water with extreme force." A person falling from a height hits the surface of the water and almost immediately stops, but his internal organs continue to move for a fraction of a second longer, until they hit the wall of the corresponding body cavity, which at that moment began a return movement. Often during falls, the aorta ruptures, since one part of it is fixed in the body (and stops moving with the body), and the other part, located closer to the heart, is free and stops moving a little later. The two parts of the aorta move in opposite directions, and the resulting shear forces cause it to rupture. Severe damage to the aorta was found in 73% of the passengers on Flight 800.
In addition, when a body falling from a great height hits the water, rib fractures often occur. This fact was documented by former employees of the Institute for Civil Aeromedicine Richard Snyder and Clyde Snow. In 1968, Snyder studied the autopsy results of 169 suicides thrown off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. 85% had broken ribs, 15% had their spine, and only a third had their limbs. By itself, a fracture of the ribs is not dangerous, but with a very strong blow, the ribs can pierce what is under them: the heart, lung, aorta. In 76% of the cases studied by Snyder and Snow, the ribs pierced the lung. The statistics for the crash of Flight 800 were very similar: most of the victims suffered some form of damage associated with a strong impact on the surface of the water. All had injuries accompanying a blunt blow from the chest, 99% had broken ribs, 88% had torn lungs, and 73% had aortic rupture.
If most of the passengers died as a result of a strong impact on the surface of the water, does this mean that they were alive and understood what was happening to them during the three-minute fall from a height? Alive, perhaps. “If by life you mean heartbeat and breathing,” says Shanaghan. "Yes, there must have been many of them." Did they understand? Dennis thinks it’s unlikely. “I think this is unlikely. Seats and passengers fly in different directions. I think people are completely disoriented. " Shanaghan interviewed hundreds of car and plane crash survivors about what they saw and felt during the crash. “I came to the conclusion that these people did not fully understand that they were seriously injured. I found them quite distant. They knew that some events were happening around, but they gave some unthinkable answer: “I knew that something was happening around, but I did not know what it was. I didn’t feel that it was about me, but, on the other hand, I understood that I was part of the events ”.
Knowing how many passengers on Flight 800 had fallen out of the plane in an accident, I asked if any of them had even a small chance of surviving. If you enter the water like a sports diver, can you survive a fall from an airplane from a great height? At least once it happened. In 1963, Richard Snyder studied cases in which people survived by falling from a great height. In his work "Survival of People in Free Fall," he cites a case when one person fell out of an airplane at an altitude of 10 km and survived, although he lived only half a day. Moreover, the poor fellow was not lucky - he fell not into the water, but on the ground (however, when falling from such a height, the difference is already small). Snyder found that the speed of a person's movement when hitting the ground does not unambiguously predict the severity of the injury. He talked to escaped lovers who were more seriously injured by falling down stairs than a thirty-six-year-old suicide who threw himself on a concrete surface from a height of twenty-odd meters. This man got up and went, and he didn’t need anything but a band-aid and a visit to a psychotherapist.
Generally speaking, people falling from planes usually no longer fly. According to Snyder's article, the maximum speed at which a person has a measurable chance of survival when immersed in the water feet first (this is the safest position) is about 100 km / h. Considering that the final speed of a falling body is 180 km / h and that a similar speed is achieved already when falling from a height of 150 meters, few people will be able to fall from a height of 8000 meters from an exploded plane, survive and then give an interview to Dennis Shanaghan.
Was Shanaghan right about what happened to Flight 800? Yes. Gradually, all the main parts of the aircraft were found, and his hypothesis was confirmed. The final conclusion was this: sparks from damaged electrical wiring ignited fuel vapors, which led to the explosion of one of the fuel tanks.
The gloomy science of human mutilation emerged in 1954, when the British Comet planes, for some unknown reason, began to fall into the water. The first plane disappeared in January near the island of Elba, the second near Naples three months later. In both cases, due to the sufficiently large immersion depth of the debris of many parts of the fuselage, it was not possible to extract, so the experts had to study the "medical evidence", that is, examine the bodies of twenty-one passengers found on the surface of the water.
The research was conducted at the Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough under the direction of Captain W.K. Stewart and Sir Harold E. Whittingham, Director of Medical Services for the British National Airline. Since Sir Harold had more of all kinds of titles (at least five, not counting the title of nobility, were designated in the article published on the results of the research), I decided that he was the one in charge of the work.
Sir Harold and his group immediately drew attention to the peculiarity of the damage to the bodies. All the bodies had few external injuries and, at the same time, very serious damage to internal organs, especially the lungs. It was known that such lung injuries, which were found in the passengers of the "Kometa", can be caused by three reasons: a bomb explosion, a sharp decompression (which occurs when the pressurization of the aircraft cabin is broken), as well as a fall from a very high altitude. In a disaster like this, all three factors could play a role. Up to this point, the dead have not helped much to solve the mystery of the plane crash.
The first version, which began to be considered, was associated with a bomb explosion. But not a single body was burned, in none were found fragments of objects that could fly apart in an explosion, and not a single body, as Dennis Shanaghan would have noticed, was torn to pieces. So the idea of an insane and hateful former airline employee familiar with explosives was quickly dismissed.
Then a group of researchers considered the version of a sudden depressurization of the cabin. Could this have caused such serious damage to the lungs? To answer this question, the experts used guinea pigs and tested their response to rapid changes in atmospheric pressure - from pressure at sea level to pressure at 10,000 m. According to Sir Harold, “the guinea pigs were somewhat surprised by what was happening, but showed no signs respiratory failure ". Other experimental data, obtained both in animals and in humans, similarly showed only a slight negative effect of pressure changes, which in no way reflected the state of the light passengers of the Comet.
As a result, only the latest version could be considered as the cause of death of the aircraft passengers - "an extremely strong impact on the water", and the collapse of the hull at a high altitude, possibly due to some structural defect, could be considered the cause of the crash. Since Richard Snyder wrote Fatal Injuries Resulting from Extreme Water Impact only 14 years after the events, the Farnborough team again had to turn to guinea pigs for help. Sir Harold wanted to establish exactly what happens to the lungs when the body hits the water at top speed. When I first saw the mention of animals in the text, I imagined Sir Harold heading towards Dover Rocks with a cage full of rodents and throwing innocent animals into the water, where his comrades were waiting in a boat with their nets spread. However, Sir Harold did a more meaningful thing: he and his assistants created a "vertical catapult" that allows you to achieve the required speed at a much shorter distance. "Guinea pigs," he wrote, "were attached with duct tape to the underside of the carrier, so that when it stopped at the bottom of its trajectory, the animals flew belly forward from a height of about 8 cm and fell into the water." I have a good idea of what kind of boy Sir Harold was as a child.
In short, the lungs of the ejected guinea pigs closely resembled the lungs of the passengers on the Comet. The researchers concluded that the planes disintegrated at high altitude, causing most of the passengers to fall out of them and fall into the sea. To understand where the fuselage cracked, the researchers paid attention to whether the passengers were dressed or undressed when they were lifted from the surface of the water. According to Sir Harold's theory, a person hitting the water when dropped from a height of several kilometers should have lost his clothes, but a person falling into the water from the same height inside a large fragment of the fuselage should remain clothed. Therefore, the researchers tried to establish a line of collapse of the plane along the border passing between naked and clothed passengers. In the cases of both aircraft, people in the rear of the aircraft would have to be found clothed, while passengers closer to the cockpit would have been found naked or most of their clothing had been lost.
To prove this theory, Sir Harold lacked one thing: there was no evidence that a person loses clothes when falling into the water from a great height. Sir Harold undertook pioneering research again. While I would love to share with you how guinea pigs dressed in woolen suits and 1950s dresses were used in the next round of trials at Farnborough, unfortunately guinea pigs were not used in this part of the research. Several fully clothed dummies * were dropped into the sea from a Royal Aviation Center aircraft. As Sir Harold expected, they lost their clothes on impact on the water, a fact confirmed by investigator Gary Erickson, who performed the autopsy of the suicides thrown into the water from the Golden Gate Bridge. As he told me, even when falling from a height of only 75 m, “shoes usually fly off, pants rip at the gusset, back pockets come off.”
*You might be wondering how it interested me if human corpses were ever used to reproduce the results of people falling from great heights. The two manuscripts that brought me closest to this topic were JC Earley's Body Terminal Velocity, dated 1964, and JS Kotner's Analysis of the Effect of Air Resistance on the Falling Speed of Human Bodies. (Analysis of Air Resistance Effects on the Velocity of Falling Human Bodies) from 1962 Both articles, unfortunately, have not been published. However, I know that if J.C. Earley had used dummies in his research, he would have written the word "dummies" in the title of the article, so I suspect that several donated bodies for scientific purposes did indeed jump into the water with heights. - Note. ed.
Ultimately, a significant portion of the Comet fragments were raised to the surface, and Sir Harold's theory was confirmed. The collapse of the fuselage in both cases actually occurred in the air. Hats off to Sir Harold and the Farnborough guinea pigs.
Dennis and I are having lunch at an Italian restaurant on the beach. We are the only visitors and therefore we can calmly chat at the table. When the waiter comes over to pour us some water, I shut up, as if we are talking about something secret or very personal. Shanaghan doesn't seem to care. The waiter peppers my salad for an infinitely long time, and Dennis at this time says that "... a specialized trawler was used to retrieve the small remains."
I ask Dennis how he can, knowing what he knows and seeing what he sees, still fly planes. He replies that not all accidents occur at an altitude of 10,000 m. Most accidents occur during takeoff, landing or near the surface of the earth, and at the same time, in his opinion, the potential probability of survival is between 80 and 85%.
For me, the key word here is the word "potential". This means that if everything happens according to an evacuation plan approved by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), there is an 80-85% chance that you will survive. Federal law requires aircraft manufacturers to provide for the ability to evacuate all passengers through half of the aircraft's emergency exits in 90 seconds. Unfortunately, in a real-life situation, evacuation rarely proceeds as planned. “When you consider disaster cases in which people can be saved, even half of the emergency exits are rarely open,” says Shanaghan. "Plus, there is chaos and panic on the plane." Shanaghan gives the example of the Delta plane crash in Dallas. “In this accident, it was quite possible to save all people. People received very few injuries. But many died in the fire. They crowded around the emergency exits, but could not open them. " Fire is the number one killer in plane crashes. It does not take a hard blow to explode the fuel tank and engulf the entire aircraft. Passengers die from suffocation as the air becomes scalding hot and filled with toxic smoke from the burning hull of the aircraft. People also die, because they break their legs, crashing into the chair in front, and cannot crawl to the exit. Passengers cannot follow the evacuation plan in the required order: they run in panic, push and trample each other *.
* This is the secret of survival in such disasters: you have to be a man. An analysis of the events of three plane crashes using an emergency evacuation system conducted in 1970 by the Institute of Civil Aeromedicine showed that the most important factor contributing to human survival is gender (this is the second most important factor that follows the proximity of the passenger seat to the emergency exit). Adult males have a significantly higher chance of escape. Why? Probably because they are capable of sweeping everyone else out of the way. - Note. ed.
Can manufacturers make their aircraft less fire hazardous? Of course they can. They can design more emergency exits, but they don't want to, as this will lead to fewer seats and lower revenues. They can install water sprinklers or shock-resistant systems to protect fuel tanks, as in military helicopters. But they do not want to do this either, since this will make the plane heavier, and more weight of the car means more fuel consumption.
Who decides to sacrifice human lives but save money? Allegedly the Federal Aviation Agency. The problem is that most improvements to aircraft safety are measured in terms of cost effectiveness. To quantify the “benefit,” each life saved is expressed in dollar terms. The US Urban Development Institute calculated in 1991 that each person is worth $ 2.7 million. “This is a financial expression of human death and its impact on society,” FAA spokesman Van Goody told me. While this figure is well above the cost of raw materials, the benefit figures are rarely raised to exceed the cost of manufacturing aircraft. To explain his words, Goody used the example of three-point seat belts (which, like in a car, are thrown over the waist and over the shoulder). “Well, okay, the agency will say, we will improve the seat belts and thus save fifteen lives in the next twenty years: fifteen times two million dollars is equal to thirty million. Manufacturers will come and say: to introduce such a security system, we need six hundred and sixty-nine million dollars. " So much for the shoulder harnesses.
Why doesn't the FAA say, “Expensive. But will you still start releasing them? " For the same reason that it took the government 15 years to require the installation of airbags in cars. Regulatory authorities have no teeth. “If the FAA wants to introduce new rules, it has to provide industry with a cost benefit analysis and wait for a response,” Shanaghan says. - If industrialists do not like the alignment, they go to their congressman. If you represent Boeing, you have tremendous influence in Congress. ”*
*It is for this reason that there are no airbags in modern aircraft. Believe it or not, the airbag system for aircraft (called the airstop restraint system) was designed; it consists of three parts that protect the legs, the seat underneath and the chest. In 1964, the FAA even tested the system on a DC-7 plane with dummies, causing the plane to crash into the ground near Phoenix, Arizona. While the test dummy, wearing a lap belt, was crushed and lost its head, the dummy, equipped with a new safety system, was perfectly preserved. The designers used stories from World War II combat aircraft pilots who inflated their life jackets just before the crash. - Note. ed. Since 2001, in order to improve the safety of passengers on airplanes, they began to install shoulder seat belts and airbags. As of the end of 2010, airbags were installed on the aircraft of 6o airlines around the world, and this figure is constantly growing. - Note. per.
In defense of the FAA, it should be said that the agency recently approved the introduction of a new system that pumps nitrogen-enriched air into fuel tanks, which reduces the oxygen content in the fuel and, therefore, the likelihood of an explosion, leading, for example, to the crash of TWA 800.
I ask Dennis to give some advice to those passengers who, after reading this book, every time they board a plane, will wonder if they will end up being trampled by other passengers at the emergency exit door. He says the best advice is to stick to common sense. Sit closer to the emergency exit. In case of fire, bend as low as possible to avoid hot air and smoke. Hold your breath as long as possible so as not to burn your lungs and not inhale toxic gases. Shanaghan himself prefers window seats, as aisle passengers are more likely to be hit on the head by bags falling from the overhead storage compartment, which can open even with a slight shock.
While we wait for the waiter with the bill, I ask Shanaghan the question he has been asked at every cocktail for the past twenty years: Are passengers in the front or in the back more likely to survive a plane crash? "It depends on what type of accident we are talking about," he patiently replies. I will reformulate the question. If he has the opportunity to choose his seat on the plane, where does he sit down?
“First grade,” he replies.
In addition to the usual anatomical structure of the physical body, we have a finer structure invisible to the human eye. The structure of the human subtle body is described in detail in the Vedas. The subtle body is of a very subtle material nature. Sheaths of the subtle body, which include our vital energy, mind with all feelings, addictions, earthly mind and our perception of happiness, contact with the higher cosmic mind, God, the absolute. These bodies depend on the way of life, goals, desires, perception of the world.
This abstract material is a body of knowledge from different sources, tables are taken from the Internet, and some descriptions of the chakras, materials are also taken from read books, and received oral information from Yoga Teachers, psychics, esoteric books, as well as information from our own experience of working with chakras, energies, subtle bodies and their awareness. Let's consider from different angles the concept of the subtle body, its structure from the positions of chakras, kosh, channels, worlds.
Cauchy and five shells
According to yoga, it is believed that the subtle bodies of a person have five levels of energy that coexist in a range from the grossest to the most subtle.
They are called pata kosha, or five sheaths:
- annamaya kosha (anatomical, food body)
- pranamaya kosha (etheric, pranic body)
- manomaya kosha / jnana-maya-kosha (mental body)
- vijnanamaya kosha / vijnana-maya-kosha (intellectual, astral or psychic body)
- anandamaya kosha (causal, body of bliss).
For most people, consciousness exists only on the physical plane. The veils (koshas) determine the levels of consciousness, the table shows the system of koshas, bodies, plans, perception.
Ayurveda considers all five sheaths. But in some treatises a person is considered as a trinity of spirit (jiva), soul ("subtle" body) and flesh ("gross", physical body). The etheric body is the energy-informational matrix of the anatomical body and completely repeats the contours of the ana-kosha. This applies equally to a person, an animal, a bird or a tree. The etheric body, in turn, consists of two parts: sthula-prana-kosha (information sheath) and sukshma-prana-kosha (energy sheath).
Energy channels
Sukshma-prana-kosha- the energy shell of the human body. It is a complex system of chakras (energy centers) and nadis (energy channels). The Vedic canons speak of 49 chakras. Seven of them are the main ones, these are the so-called chakras of the first circle, described in detail in various occult literature; 21 - chakras of the second circle and 21 more - chakras of the third circle. The processes of transmutation of energies take place in them, each of which has its own frequency of oscillations (rotations). They are tuned to the corresponding frequency resonances of the microcosm (information channels, physiological systems, organs, tissues) and the macrocosm (Sun, Moon, planets, stars and other cosmic bodies). Numerous energy channels - nadis - branch off from the chakras, just as hundreds and thousands of branches, shoots and leaves branch off from a tree. Ayurvedic canons mention 350 thousand nadis, three of which are the main ones (sushumna, ida and pingala) and 108 are the main ones. Through nadi, a person is connected with all layers of the universe and their inhabitants. Every living entity in the material world has sukshma-prana-kosha. Thus, the law of the universal unity of the Universe is realized.
Sushumna canal
The main nadi is called sushumna. Physiologically, it is projected onto the spine (sushumna nadi is located inside the cerebrospinal axis or spinal column, in a place corresponding to the internal spinal canal), although it is located in a completely different space. In the Vedic tradition, it is compared to Mount Meru (cosmic axis). Sushumna connects all the central chakras with each other. Two more energy channels pass along sushumna - ida and pingala. They cross each other in several places. Sushumna emanates from the muladhara chakra (located in the tailbone region) and rises to the twelve-petalled lotus in the "pericarp" of the thousand-petalled lotus - the sahasrara chakra (above the crown of the head). This nadi splits into two branches: front and back. The front branch goes to the ajna chakra, located at the level of the eyebrows, and joins the brahma randhra. Another branch runs along the back of the skull and joins the brahma randhra. This empty space - brahma-randhra - is also called brahmara-gupha ("bumblebee cave") or andha-kupa ("blind well" or "tenth gate"). In a newborn, you can feel a pulsation in the crown, but after six months this soft spot closes. And it can be opened later only with the help of a special practice: laya yoga, swara yoga, kriya yoga or nada yoga. The scriptures say that if a yogi leaves his body through the "tenth gate", he is freed from the cycle of birth and death. Some yogis follow a special practice, preparing the "tenth gate" in such a way that their last breath will carry the soul through this gate to liberation. A real disciple who desires liberation will work with the back branch of sushumna ...
Pingala channel
Pingala is the right nadi. He is associated with the Sun. Through this channel, a person receives direct solar energy. This energy in different traditions is called differently: "Ha", "Yang" or "Ra", and without it the neuroendocrine system cannot function, just like, for example, a TV set cannot work without electrical energy. Pingala is also called Yamuna. This channel is masculine in nature and is the abode of destructive energy. Pingala is also purifying, but its purification is fiery. In swara yoga, pingala is represented as the "right" breath, that is, flowing through the right nostril. Right is electrical, masculine, verbal and rational in nature. Pingala nadi makes the body active. For example, Surya Bhedana Pranayama is breathing that increases stamina, vitality and solar energy. This pranayama is an exception in yogic practice, since in it inhalation begins through the right nostril. In swara yoga it is stated that pingala nadi makes masculine "purely masculine", and ida (left channel) makes feminine "purely feminine." Breathing through the right nostril is recommended for physical activity, discussion, argument, competition. To maintain harmony in the body, swara yoga prescribes to keep the right nostril open at night tamas, when solar energy is less influential. By activating walking during the day and pingala at night, you can increase vitality and life expectancy. Pingala is more active during the waning moon.
Ida channel
Ida, which is the left nadi, is associated with the moon. Through this channel we receive the reflected solar energy called "Tha" or "Yin". According to the Sankhya philosophy, all visible objects of the material world reflect the energy of the Sun in different spectra. This reflected energy can compensate to some extent for the lack of solar energy. "Ha" (yang) has a warming and energizing effect. "Tha" (yin) - cooling and inhibiting. However, thanks to the central channel sushumna, these energies of opposite properties are able to transform one into another. With an excess, "Yang" goes into "Yin", and "Yin" - into "Yang". These channels exist in all biological species (even in plants). Thus, homeostasis of the internal environment of the body is maintained. Ida is a lunar stream, she is feminine in nature, nourishing and purifying. Therefore it is also called Ganga. In swara yoga (yoga of sound), it symbolizes the "left breath", that is, the breath flowing mainly through the left nostril. According to the tantras, the left is considered magnetic, feminine, emotional in nature. In pranayama practice, with the exception of Surya bhedana pranayama, inhalation (puraka) begins from the left nostril. This excites Ida Nadi, for Ida starts from the left testicle and ends in the left nostril. Driven into a state of excitement by such breathing through the left nostril, ida nadi purifies the elements of the body by its influence. It is recommended to perform actions leading to improved well-being while the ida is functioning. In the Surya yoga system, the practitioner usually keeps the left nostril open during the day to balance the solar energy coming in during the daytime. Ida Nadi is sattvic by nature, and keeping it working during the day (the time of the predominance of rajasic energy), you can increase sattva, thereby gaining goodness, harmony and peace. Ida brings energy to the brain. Ida nadi controls body temperature, blood pressure, processes occurring in the region of the liver, kidneys, intestines and heart. Other names for ida are lalana, piryana, chandrahara, shetla. The seven main chakras and the five chakras of the second circle are located on the central line of the body, corresponding, as mentioned above, to the sushumna channel. The remaining 16 chakras of the second circle are projected in the area of the palms, feet and large joints. Chakras have the ability to store and transmute certain types of energies used by the body for various purposes.
The rest of the main nadis
In addition to the three most important nadis - sushumna, ida and pingala - there are others:
In Ayurveda and yogic traditions, great importance is also attached to the small energy channels and chakras located on the palms and feet. This is due to the fact that their activation is quite simple and has a strong effect on many processes in the subtle human body. Everyone has access to mudras, special gestures that activate energy channels and can heal many ailments of the soul and body.
Used: fragments from the article by I.I. Vetrov "The structure of the temple of the human body" and materials of the book by S.М. Neapolitan "Encyclopedia of Ayurveda"
Chakras
Chakras are subtle energy centers located in the places of the nerve plexuses. Chakra in translation from Sanskrit means "wheel". There are seven main chakras in our subtle body, each of which corresponds to a stage of evolution. Each chakra is responsible for the embodiment in a person of certain spiritual qualities, which in most people are in an unmanifested state. After awakening (ie receiving self-realization), they begin to emit "vibrations", expressing the principles of Divinity in us. It is in this sense that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Physical, mental and emotional problems can be the result of an imbalance in one or more chakras. Self-realization allows you to awaken the Kundalini energy, which is in a dormant state, which then, ascending the central channel and filling all seven centers with pure energy, makes possible the spontaneous manifestation of all spiritual properties inherent in people.
Seven main chakras, and their description of their manifestation from the perspective of the three Gunas of material nature: Tamas, Rajas, Sattva
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Chakra |
Tamas (ignorance) |
Rajas (passion) |
Sattva (goodness) |
Unfolding of the worlds. |
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Sahasrara Chakra("Thousand-petalled lotus") is located at the top of the head, in the region of the crown. |
What yoga strives for is a state of awareness without doubt, when we are completely one with the all-pervading energy. Maximum self-sacrifice, Buddha level. Jesus. Transcendental perception of reality. Spirituality: Corresponds to altruism. There is no material color, birth, death. world consciousness. the exit of the content from the form. Understanding of planetary processes in spiritual unity. Perfection in controlling the will of energy, the state of Oneness, outside of time, outside the spatial boundaries of matter. Unconditional Love. Emotional dysfunction: Expressed in self-pity, more dramatically as martyrdom. |
Higher strata of the Universe. |
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Agya Chakra (ajana) located at the level of the middle of the forehead at the point where the optic nerves intersect. |
Using mystical potential without needs. Pride. Dysfunctions of emotional expressions: selfishness, arrogance, dogmatism. Unexpected blinding flashes of altered consciousness, disturbing the norm, as a result of excess Kundalini or drug poisoning: mental illness. Desires and obstacles: awareness, asceticism, intuition. creative imagination understanding of concepts, or messages. Of the mind of the universe the ability to know the past, present and future, the ability to penetrate any body at will; |
Sensual control and will. Creators. Reality management. Lobbying space. Psychic abilities. Analytical capabilities. Cosmic consciousness. Identifying yourself with God. Impact: on the whole body, mind, perception and transmission of information in the three parts of consciousness - spirit, mind, matter. The individual lives in time and space as a servant of the spirit, he no longer needs to take care of his urgent needs. Maternal power (feminine energy), material power and their manifestation. Ability to get in touch with superconsciousness. Chakra represents the ability to have inner vision, introspection, clairvoyance, perceive visions and understand them. Contact with the "Universal Guru" (supreme being). Ajdana is the zone where the state of SAMADHI (consciousness) takes place Aspects: the union of these energies ethereally means the synthesis of the functions of the left and right hemispheres. connection with the autonomic nervous system. Gives awareness without thoughts. is a "narrow gate", in order to pass this chakra, you must forgive everyone. Benefit and activity for people. Teachers. The unity of all things. Entering Samadhi. Beyond reality. Nonduality. Advaita. |
Exit into the fourth dimension, beyond space and time, into eternity. Pralaya. |
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Vishuddi Chakra (vishudha) located at the level of the jugular cavity at the base of the neck. |
Struggle by inertia, people are rulers. Expression problems. |
The motto is - the end justifies the means. Aggression to confrontation. The ability to digest negativity, emotional poison. Developed speech, self-expression. The pursuit of excellence |
Rationalism. Collectivity, lack of guilt, self-esteem, respect for others, Compassion, help. Subtle level of perception of meaning, to see the essence. |
World of the Gods. Games. Astral paradise. |
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Anahata Chakra located at the level of the heart. |
Monopoly on sensual possessions |
Emotional jealousy |
Calmness, pacification, bliss. Acceptance of the World. Fearlessness, courage, our Spirit dwells in it. Empathy. Wish for happiness to another. Platonic true love. His opinion is your opinion. There is no protection. The connection of the material and the spiritual. True service. The Purpose of the Soul. |
World of people |
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Manipura (Nabi Chakra.) is located at the site of the solar plexus. |
Hoarding. Inferiority complexes. Interested in power and manipulation. The status is important. Someone else's opinion is important The desire to assert itself. Lack of spiritual maturity. |
Ambition .. Marriages of convenience. Ego level (Separating oneself from everyone, considering oneself special), External social activity. People are politicians, scientists. Intellectual greed. Spiritual "burning". Karma and sanskaras are burned out. Overeating because of the desire to get more. Spiritual materialism. Strong-willed character. Desire to inspire. |
Satisfaction. Search for Yourself. Its purpose. The development of intelligence. The insight of something beyond the material. The power to influence others. |
The world of passions. The lower astral with the inhabitants - spirits |
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Svadhisthana located at the level of the appendix (palm-width below the navel). |
Momentary joy, desire for taste, sexual desire, pleasure, life in one day |
Passionate desires, sexual jealousy, romance. Sexual imbalance. overeating out of desire for taste, shopaholism, beautiful clothes. Desire to be liked (new level of survival). Interest in people, gossip, sympathy, affection. Animal level. survival. layer of karma (it is necessary to cleanse the chakra) |
Altruism, creativity, creation. Friendship. Flexibility in dealing with people |
Animal world |
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Muladhara located at the base of the spine on the outside. |
Inaction, laziness, lack of initiative, stupidity |
physical cruelty. Sadism. Crime. Black magic. Lower astral. Survival. Self-preservation instincts. Rough level |
Patience, discipline, impartiality. wisdom, purity. Security. Providing food. Mental stability. Symbiosis in relationships. Health, endurance. Childhood. Modesty. | ||
The wreckage of the airbus that crashed on Sinai is scattered over a fairly large area, the bodies of the dead passengers were severely injured. Special methods will be needed to identify most of the victims.
At the crash site, forensic experts take pictures of the surviving body fragments. Then they can be scanned in the laboratory, sometimes even in 3D. The main details that specialists are looking for are tattoos, moles and other "special signs". But often the bodies are so damaged that it is impossible to identify the dead by visual means.
In such cases, identification by teeth is often used. Here, the most important signs are the structural features of the teeth or their damage, for example, caries, periodontal disease, any operations that were performed on the jaw, or, for example, prosthetics. According to statistics, in 90% of aviation accidents, the identity of the victims is established precisely by the dental examination.
Fingerprints are also used. Moreover, since last year, these data must necessarily be in the passports of the new sample. The papillary pattern on the pads remains unchanged throughout a person's life. Moreover, this pattern is unique for everyone. But there is a nuance - this method is applicable only if passengers have issued a biometric passport, and so far not everyone has it. In addition, many of the bodies were badly burned. The extent to which the fingerprint method is applicable in this case should be decided by experts.
Another method used is DNA analysis. It can be done in four different ways. One requires a mitochondrial molecule for comparison. In theory, it can be extracted from any fabric. This mitochondrion contains most of the hereditary information, by which relatives are identified. After the disaster of the Sharm El Sheikh - St. Petersburg flight, experts took saliva samples from the relatives of the victims in the emergency headquarters. Russian specialists took this gene material to Egypt, where the comparison procedure will begin.
DNA identification was introduced in 2010 after the identification of the victims of the A330 plane crash in Tripoli. The same analysis method was used to identify the victims of the MH17 disaster, which crashed in the skies over Ukraine last summer. Then, thanks to DNA expertise, 296 people were identified out of 298 dead.
163 bodies were found at the crash site. They promise that the entire identification procedure will take place in Russia, in the St. Petersburg forensic medical examination bureau. It is difficult to say exactly how it will look. But if you remember the crash with the plane Anapa - Petersburg in 2006, the identification took place in a small room not far from the site of the tragedy.
Photos of the dead were then simply shown on the screen. Relatives admitted that this was the hardest test. Moreover, in this way, 25 bodies were immediately identified. The remaining 150 passengers had to be identified by DNA. For this, relatives were asked to donate samples of their blood.
