Wheels ‘snapped off’ Indonesian plane

THE front wheels snapped off an Indonesian plane as it crash-landed and skidded into a rice field where it burst into flames, investigators said yesterday as they probed Indonesia’s second deadly plane crash this year.

Teams of forensic doctors struggled to identify the 21 people killed, most of them burned beyond recognition by the fireball that reached 600 degrees Celsius as it tore through the Garuda Airlines Boeing 737-400.

“In everyday language, parts of their bodies turned into charcoal,” police doctor said Col Slamet Pornomo, adding that jewellery, and in some cases teeth, melted.