Indonesian military plane crash kills 98

AN Indonesian military transport plane carrying 110 passengers and crew crashed and burst into flames in East Java yesterday, killing at least 98 people on board and on the ground, officials said.

The C-130 Hercules aircraft ploughed into several houses on the ground, scattering debris and sending flames and billowing smoke into the air, in the latest of a series of air disasters in a country with a poor air safety record.

Air force spokesman Bambang Soelistyo said that 98 people had been killed, including two on the ground, while there were 15 survivors.

“Some victims are still at the crash site,” said Soelistyo. He said the plane, with 11 crew and 99 passengers, had crashed about 6.5km from the Iswahyudi air force base in East Java while preparing to land.

National military spokesman Sagom Tamboen told a news conference the aircraft had been in good condition and the weather was clear before the crash.

But army chief Djoko Santoso later said there had been fog around the time of the crash.

The plane had been on a regular flight from Jakarta to the Iswahyudi air base in Magetan to transport military personnel and their families. It had been due to fly on to Sulawesi and Papua.

Television footage from the scene showed people desperately trying to extinguish flames with buckets of water.

“I heard a thunderous sound, like a car roaring past. I looked out and a huge plane had crashed into a clump of bamboo. The left wing landed in front of my house,” said eyewitness Sutrisno, who like many Indonesians uses one name. “About 15 metres of the tail is still intact, but the body to the front is broken and burnt,” said Suwardi, a local official in Magetan, who said the crash took place at about 6.30am (12.30am Irish time), between Madiun and Magetan, about 150km southwest of Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya.

Some relatives of the victims were sobbing and praying at the air force hospital in Madiun, where there were about 18 bodies. Agus Yulianto, an eyewitness, said the plane appeared to tilt in the air and objects rained down from the aircraft before it crashed.

“Some things were falling, like bolts and axle nuts from the plane. The plane kept nosediving and finally crashed on two houses,” said Yulianto.

Purwanto, a survivor of the disaster, said the plane crashed and then later exploded.

He was speaking from a hospital bed with his head heavily bandaged.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged people not to jump to conclusions before an investigation was completed.