NEW YORK, March 19 (UPI) -- The bodies of three passengers from one of the hijacked airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center have been identified, the New York City medical examiner's office said Tuesday.
"This is the first DNA identification of any of the victims from the hijacked airliners from Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center," a spokesman for the medical examiner's office told United Press International. "The list of missing persons from the police doesn't say whether the victim was on a plane so we don't know how many other victims have been identified (without using DNA) have been made."
DNA testing confirmed the remains of James Trentini, 65, Paul Friedman, 45, and Peter Gay, 54. All were from Massachusetts and they were aboard American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston when it crashed into the north tower.
A hand that still contained the school ring of Trentini was found in the rubble at "Ground Zero" and was matched through DNA testing. Trentini, a retired schoolteacher, and his 67-year-old wife, Mary, often took Flight 11 to Los Angeles to visit their grandchildren. There has been no identification of Mary Trentini.
Since Friday, the last day data was available, the medical examiner's office had collected 16,013 body parts and identified 786 people, 161 of those from DNA. More than 2,000 victims have not been identified. According to government officials, 147 passengers and crew were aboard the two jets that crashed into the Twin Towers.
According to the city's Office of Emergency Management, courts have issued 1,886 death certificates where no remains have been identified.
"Bodies have been found as recently as last week, so there is hope that as the last quadrant of rubble is examined -- where the south tower collapsed -- so some more victims may be recovered," said the medical examiner's spokesman. As of last week, the bodies of 148 firefighters had been recovered of the 343 who died in the Sept. 11.
Meanwhile the remains of what are believed to be the four hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in a rural area 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh on Sept. 11 have been sent to federal authorities, according to published reports in Pennsylvania.
The remains of all 40 victims of the United Airlines flight have all been identified using DNA or dental records, however, the remains of four passengers -- Ziad Samir Jarrah, Saeed Alghamdi, Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi and Ahmed Alnami -- have not been identified because no family members have stepped forward and given DNA samples to the Somerset County Coroner.
