Difficulties and limits in forensic expertise of a fatal aircraft accident

The forensic expertise of a pilot who died in a military plane crash represents a challenge for any expert called in to bring forensic evidences necessary for the reconstruction of the aircraft accident. The present paper presents the forensic expertise on a pilot autopsied at the Arad County Forensic Service (Romania) and deceased on 22nd of November 2006, in a military plane crash, 21 MIG LANCER, belonging to the Campia Turzii Air Base, Romania. The examination of the fragments of remaining tissues, the results of the toxicological analysis and the histopathological examination were analyzed and interpreted in concordance with the objective imposed by the forensic expertise on the victims involved in the plane crash. The particularities of the case are generated by the difficulty of formulating an adequate conclusion regarding the mechanism of death and the difficulty posed by the complex interpretation of the toxicological results, both problematics arising due to the concrete circumstances of the plane wreck which presented contaminated tissue samples and disintegration of the pilot's body.