To think this shouldn’t have been done…?

[NoddyfromToytown]

A very random one but I’ve had a rare day of doing nothing today and have been watching the recent documentary about the Lockerbie bombing…

They're currently discussing getting victims personal possessions back to their families, and how every item of clothing was washed and ironed before return.

My dad passed when I was younger and I still have a T shirt in my wardrobe that he wore the day before… if I sniffed it closely now it would still smell ever so slightly of him. Obviously scent is a really evocative thing and I’d have been gutted if things had been sent back to me smelling of an unfamiliar washing powder.

Just some weird musings as I’m feeling sentimental.

The clothes would need to be cleaned as, unlike with your Dad’s t-shirt, these clothes may have been worn at the time of the disaster and have evidence of that.
potentially very very distressing for families.

I think it’s hard to know what the right thing is.

I had a very close family member killed in an accident last year. At the mortuary, the police handed me their personal possessions which were caked in blood.

It was devastating.

It was more when they were discussing items from luggage - one lady said her husband would never have come home from a business trip with clean clothes

It’s hard to say. Receiving a package of clothes caked in blood and other bodily fluids of multiple people as well as chemical residues that could make people sick over time is probably not ideal too.

Surely though luggage would not have reached the ground intact, but burst open and polluted by dirt and in all probability bodily fluids and aviation fuel and even explosives and god knows what else? Not still neatly in suitcases?

I've read something about this but can't find it.