[Considerations 20 years after the publication of the article "The dentist as an expert in disasters--dental identification in the disaster with the Zeebruge ferry"].

Abstract

The Herald of Free Enterprise disaster on the 6th of March 1987 just outside Zeebrugge was the first major disaster that happened in Belgium after the federal authorities put together a DVI team. It was also the first time dental identification by forensic odontologists was used in a Belgian mass disaster. Although international cooperation and coordination through Interpol in cases of disasters with multinational victims hadn't reached today's level, the handling of the disaster and the cooperation between Belgian and British specialists within DVI teams was a prime example of today's Interpol DVI philosophy. The lessons learned from this disaster were reported at the Interpol DVI working group annual meeting and subsequently new guidelines were implemented in the DVI Guide and Forms. The experience gained from this major event definitely helped in the development and proficiency of the Belgian DVI team, which became very professional in the years to follow through its involvement in different mass disasters and major incidents within Belgium and abroad and contributed a whole lot to the development of forensic odontology in Belgium.