The University of Gadjah Mada (UGM) has said it will send two forensic odontology experts to help identify the bodies of AirAsia flight QZ8501 victims that are already badly decomposed.

The two experts, Professor Sudibyo and Ahmad Syaify, were scheduled to depart for Surabaya on Tuesday. They will help the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team to identify the bodies of AirAsia victims that can no longer be physically identified using methods such as facial recognition and fingerprints, by examining the victims' dental impressions.

UGM rector Dwikorita Karnawati said that since the beginning of the recovery effort, Prof. Sudibyo had been involved in identifying the AirAsia victims based on his own initiative and financial resources.

'One of the victims Prof. Sudibyo managed to identify was Hayati Lutfiah Hamid,' Dwikorita said on Monday afternoon.

Hayati was the first AirAsia victim successfully identified by the DVI team, last week.

Dwikorita said identifying human remains via dental examinations was crucial, adding that the bodies of the AirAsia victims had begun to decompose, impeding identification via other means.

'The forensic odontology method will hopefully be helpful in ensuring that all bodies can be immediately identified and returned to their families,' she said.

Prof. Sudibyo said that overall, the AirAsia victims' bodies had been affected after being submerged in water for days and being damaged by ocean scavengers.

'To identify the bodies, the DVI team had to jump directly to the postmortem identification stage because [the victims'] faces were already damaged,' he said.

The expert said forensic odontology was the proper method to identify damaged human remains because dental components would remain relatively complete regardless of the condition of bodies.

Forensic odontology was a method applied to identify victims of a Garuda Indonesia airplane crash in Yogyakarta in 2007. Most of the bodies were difficult to identify due to burns. Sudibyo was then head of the forensic odontology team dispatched by Sardjito Hospital, Yogyakarta, to identify the victims. (ebf)(++++)