National Forensic Doctor

Beep beep beep.

When the alarm on the mobile phone rang, a group of people who were discussing via video conference stopped.

"It's three o'clock."

Stefano pressed his phone with his stubby fingers, opened his eyes, looked at everyone, and said, "How is it? Have you come to a conclusion?"

With consulting fees of thousands of euros per hour, Alessio could get any expert he needed and find a professional to answer any question he had, but Alessio still couldn't get the answer he wanted.

The contents of his notebook were complicated, but he failed to reach a conclusion.

"I'm sorry." This was all Alessio could say to Stefano.

"It's okay." The 69-year-old Stefano was very open-minded at this time, and said lightly: "Your efforts at least prove that this is extremely difficult to prove. It cannot be confirmed that it is a mechanical failure, which is enough for us."

"This..." Alessio recalled Jiang Yuan's expression and attitude at the time, and finally he could only spread his hands: "Sorry..."

"Is the autopsy report out?" Stefano raised his head and turned to ask.

"Not yet." The person who answered was an Avi Airlines liaison sitting in the corner, who was also sent from Italy. He was originally in charge of sales, but now he has started to participate in crisis public relations in order to continue sales.

Alessio flipped through his notebook. "Didn't they say the autopsy report would be ready within 24 hours?"

"It means that the autopsy report will be issued in about 24 hours, not exactly 24 hours." Avi's contact person saw that Alessio had no halo, and said bluntly: "It may be possible to give the report in a day or two."

Alessio had been busy for so long, always stuck to the time node. After hearing what the contact person said, he couldn't help but ask: "Will it take so long?"

"Chinese forensic doctors are bureaucratic first, so a delay of a few days is not uncommon." Avi's contact person said indifferently: "You will understand after you stay in China for a while. Some officials are very inefficient. Every project we apply for will be delayed for a long time. It is slow and troublesome."

When he spoke, he paid more attention to Director Stefano's expression, and his content was also to explain the situation to Stefano.

"Hmm..." Alessio didn't understand this and could only nod blankly.

"That's great, Alessio, you can rest for a while. When you wake up, you can think about work and maybe you can get the answer." Director Stefano did not force Alessio anymore. If no conclusion could be reached after such a long time, there would be no point in adding another hour or two.

Alessio was also very sleepy, so after listening to the director, he ended the video conference and went back to rest.

I had just arrived in the room and taken off my clothes when the phone rang again.

"The autopsy report is out." The caller was Avi's contact, who specifically said, "They released the results on time this time. It's possible that our Chinese agents helped. They'll be here soon to discuss strategy with you."

"I'll be there right away." Alessio slapped his face hard. Seeing that he had no time to take a shower, he wiped his armpits with the wet towels on the table, changed into a new shirt, walked out of the suite and took the elevator. In a few minutes, he was back in the conference room on the rooftop.

Looking up, 69-year-old Stefano has also returned, also changed his clothes and pants, and so has his secretary.

The Avi Airlines contact handed Alessio a folder.

Alessio nodded, sat down, and took a deep breath unconsciously before opening the document.

The translator sitting next to him gave Alessio a strange look and whispered, "Don't worry. Now that we have the autopsy report, it's time to solve the mystery."

“That depends on the answer being what we expect.” Alessio paused, then added: “We don’t know how he solved it.”

"You'll know when you see it." The translator was a liberal arts student and could not understand the mountain in Alessio's heart.

Alessio carefully untied the document bag circle by circle.

Stefano, the director next to him, did not urge him. At the same time, in the video conference, Avi Airlines' own experts also came online one by one, and soon more than a dozen avatars appeared on the left side of the screen.

Alessio didn't care about them now. He took out the autopsy report, opened the translation software on his mobile phone, and prepared to read it.

Autopsy reports are all standardized. Although the models of the two countries are different, they are both mainly based on explanatory content.

Alessio used the translation software to quickly scan the front part of the description, and then stopped when he got to the specific details. He began to read slowly and difficultly, with the help of the translator. Soon, Alessio's attention was focused on the photos that came with the report.

At the same time, on the other end of the video conference, professionals invited by Avi began to manually translate the autopsy report.

The progress of both sides is basically the same.

By the time Alessio had barely finished reading the autopsy report with the translator, a more professional version of the report was sent over.

Alessio looked at the latter again without saying a word.

Stefano waited patiently.

On the curtain on the wall, you can see the small portraits of some experts also looking down at the translated document, but since it is a pure autopsy report, only a few people need to read it, and most people, such as aviation experts, are just waiting for the conclusion.

After a long moment, Alessio raised his head.

"How's it going?" Stefano asked.

"From a forensic point of view..." Alessio said in a dry voice, "The Chinese forensic doctor did prove that it was a mechanical failure, not a human error."

The little avatars in the video conference suddenly became a mess.

In the conference room on site, several people from Avi Airlines also looked at Alessio in surprise and doubt.

The president of Avi Air China said sternly: "There are various reasons why the plane fell. How can he rule out human error?"

He knew that the official report would not be written randomly, so he had set the bottom line to not rule it out.

Alessio swallowed and said, "According to the autopsy report, first, the pilot was not under the influence of alcohol or known drugs..."

"There are many types of drugs and we can raise objections." The airline's lawyer immediately raised the corresponding point.

Alessio, as a forensic doctor, was very disdainful of this and said, "They left a blood sample. You can try to ask a third-party agency for a re-examination."

The lawyer suddenly stopped talking.

Alessio continued: "Second, the trauma pattern is consistent. Mainly burns."

No one raised any objections this time.

Alessio sighed and continued, "The third point, and the most important one, is that the Chinese medical examiner confirmed the respiratory burns of the deceased and confirmed that they were burns before death."

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"What do you mean?" The president felt something was wrong.

Alessio said: "The burns before death indicate that there was a large amount of hot gas in the cabin before the pilot died. Considering the burns on the pilot's lower limbs and feet, carbonization of the feet, and burns on the thighs, it can be judged that the hot gas came from the bottom up. It is likely that the hot gas leaked from the floor. Is it possible that the engine or exhaust pipe of this plane broke and leaked from the pilot's feet?"

The faces of the Avi company employees present turned ugly.

The lawyer immediately said, "You don't have to answer this question. Mr. Alessio, just explain the autopsy report and don't ask any questions."

Alessio was not surprised. The airline did not have its own forensic doctor and had to hire one from outside, otherwise the lawyer would have kicked him out by now.

"Are you sure about the burns you mentioned? Can you tell the difference between burns before birth and burns after death? In other words, is it possible that a person who has just died may also have signs of burns before death?" The lawyer's questions came one after another.

"It can be distinguished. But if you must say it, when a person just dies, he will indeed have some reaction to life..."

"That's it! Doesn't this prove that we still can't be sure whether it was a burn before death or a burn after death?"

Alessio would not listen to the lawyer at this time, and only said: "It's not that simple..."

"Mr. Alessio, I believe it must be very complicated, otherwise, you should have discovered the reason before, right?" The lawyer chuckled twice.

Alessio was stunned for a moment, then looked at the lawyer's smug smile and shook his head. "I could only observe from the side. Moreover, due to the centrifugal force, the tracheal mucosa of the corpse was torn. At the same time, the organs in the chest cavity were thrown out along the esophagus and respiratory tract, and then the opening in the neck. These organs flew out together with the torn tracheal mucosa. There was very little tracheal mucosa left, and it was difficult to identify it. The Chinese forensic doctor found it."

The lawyer was stunned when he heard these rare words. He was probably still simulating the route in his mind and was unable to speak for a while.

Alessio continued, "The Chinese medical examiner must have had some guesses, so he specifically found a piece of remaining tracheal mucosa and took a sample. The edema and congestion of the respiratory mucosa are different reactions before and during life, especially in high-temperature gases. If a person is dead, he will not breathe even if he has living reactions. Therefore, there are no serious burns on the outside of the neck, but the respiratory tract is congested and edematous, which is a clear sign of burns before death."

The president then slowly spoke: "Just because the pilot's respiratory tract was burned before his death, does that prove that the plane had a mechanical failure? Maybe the pilot made an operational error first, and then there was a leak of high-temperature gas?"

"I don't understand these things, you can ask your aviation expert. But the high-temperature gas must have a source." Alessio didn't care, or rather, after seeing the autopsy report, he gradually calmed down.

As a forensic doctor, after reading the autopsy report, he could easily understand what Jiang Yuan had done, but recalling the autopsy process, Alessio could not confirm it. If he had presided over the autopsy himself, he would have deliberately looked for the torn tracheal fragments, and he would have found them.

Most importantly, Alessio knew it wasn't luck.

This corpse has lost many internal organs. To be more precise, all the internal organs of this corpse have been thrown out. In terms of importance, the heart is definitely the most important part of such an autopsy, because blood from the apex of the heart can be collected for toxicology testing. The stomach contents are the second most important part, which can be used to determine what the deceased ate before death. The brain and bladder are also relatively important, followed by the liver and lungs...

No matter how you sort them, the trachea must be at the very back, especially when there are no signs of burns on the outside of the neck. You would never think of looking for fragments of the trachea. Maybe if there are other clues, you would look back and think about it, but in this case, if you didn't look carefully when you opened the neck, you would definitely not find it during the second autopsy later.

Even after dissecting the abdominal cavity, if we go back and look for it, we may not be able to find it, because there may be only a little bit of the torn trachea left.

Even at the beginning of the dissection, the choice of the first cut will affect the result.

When Alessio thought of this, he had already reconciled with himself.

At this time, yesterday's aviation expert, Ricardo, Avi Air's own and the best aviation expert, pressed the speaking button and said, "Perhaps it was a wrong operation that caused the plane to crash. The pilot was lucky to survive, but was burned to death by the high temperature gas."

"In that case, the pilot's face would also have burns. It would not be like this now, where the high-temperature gas rises from the feet. There are no burns above the abdomen, but the pilot's trachea is edematous. Therefore, he should have been in a small enclosed space at the time, that is, the canopy had not yet broken." After Alessio got the answer, it was easy to answer these questions.

Ricardo thought hard, and after two seconds of hesitation, he said, "Perhaps, the pilot suddenly wanted to smoke a cigar while flying, and ended up dropping it, causing a fire, and then the final tragedy. Believe me, I've seen this kind of thing in the airline's reports. These pilots do all kinds of things while flying the plane!"

Alessio was really shocked by Ricardo's brilliant idea.

The president and directors of Avi Airlines were shocked.

Stefano couldn't help but look at Alessio and asked, "Does this explanation make sense?"

Alessio curled his lips. "I'm not an aviation expert, but I guess the wreckage of the plane can always prove something, such as the broken exhaust pipe they found. From a forensic point of view, I think that based on the severity of the burns on the body, the Chinese forensic doctor can definitely find the location of the fire or the rupture point. If there happens to be an exhaust pipe passing through that location, how do you explain it?"

Ricardo: "The cigar happened to fall there?"

“And generate high temperatures quickly?” Alessio laughed.

Director Stefano coughed twice. "The exhaust pipe is only a few inches. You said that it would be difficult to determine the location of the fire based on the extent of the burns on the body. It's hard to determine so accurately."

"It's a bit difficult, but I think Jiang Yuan... this Chinese forensic doctor will definitely be fine." Alessio raised the autopsy report in his hand.

The conference room fell silent, and the small avatars representing the participants of the video conference also fell silent at the same time.