Headlines
113 feared dead in Indonesian military plane crash
Jakarta, June 30
All 113 people on board a
Hercules C-130 military cargo aircraft were feared killed when the
military plane crashed into a residential area in Medan city on
Indonesia's Sumatra island on Tuesday, media reported.
A total of
101 passengers and 12 military crew members -- comprising three pilots,
one navigator and eight technicians -- were on board the plane, Air
Marshall Agus Supriatna told a TV channel in Medan.
The air force
chief said 23 bodies have been identified in Adam Malik hospital in
Medan from 49 body bags received by the hospital as of Tuesday
afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported.
"In the PAUM (Military
Air Transport Flight) mission, besides carrying logistics, the plane
also carried troops transferred to serve in several regions along with
their family members. We are yet to have information on how many family
members each trooper had carried along in the plane," Agus said.
However,
media reports said the plane was also carrying civilian passengers who
were not from military families, and who were picked up from airports it
stopped over prior to the crash.
Agus said the plane, serving
Malang air force base, departed from Halim Perdanakusumah airport in
Jakarta early Tuesday morning and made stopovers in Pekanbaru, Riau and
Dumai to pick up troops being transferred to other regions.
He said the plane was enroute to transport logistics and personnel to Tanjung Pinang and Natuna islands.
An
official at Indonesia's Search and Rescue (Basarnas) Medan branch told
Xinhua earlier in the day that manifest of the crashed plane indicates
that the plane was boarded by 55 persons. That figure did not include 12
crew members operating the ill-fated plane.
According to Agus,
the plane's pilot asked for RTB (Return to Base) procedure to air
traffic control officers before the crash, which happened shortly before
noon. He said the request suggested that a problem had occurred in the
plane. Indonesian military has set up a team to investigate the plane
crash.
Agus said the plane was manufactured in 1964 and served
the air forces' 32 Squadron based in Malang, East Java. Indonesia has 28
C-130 Hercules planes in service at the moment.