Dozens are feared dead after an Indonesian military transport plane crashed shortly after take-off into a city on Sumatra island, exploding in a ball of flames in a residential area. At least 72 bodies recovered after Hercules aircraft crashed into hotel and houses in city of Medan
All 113 on board an Indonesian air force transport plane that crashed Tuesday into a major city on Sumatra are believed to have been killed, the country's air force chief said.
There were 12 crew and 101 passengers on the Hercules C-130 when it went down and burst into flames in a residential area of Medan city, Marshall Agus Supriatna said
The Hercules plane hit a hotel and houses in the northern Sumatra city of Medan on Tuesday, an official said.
The air force chief, Air Marshall Agus Supriatna, said there were 12 crew and more than 100 passengers on the plane before it reached Medan but it is unclear how many were on board when it left.
The plane was on its way from an air force base in Medan to the remote Natuna islands and crashed a few minutes after takeoff.
Asked if he believed anyone had survived, he said: "No, no. No survivors. I just returned from the site." He said that 49 bodies had so far been recovered and taken to hospital.
Buildings were left in ruins and cars reduced to flaming wrecks after the plane came down in Medan, a city of two million.An Indonesian military plane has crashed in a residential area in the capital of North Sumatra with 113 people on board, according to Indonesian Air Force officials.
Rescue teams are working through the night to recover bodies from the wreckage of the plane.
Many passengers were families of military personnel. Hitching rides on military planes to reach remote destinations is common in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that spans three time zones.
Indonesian Air Force chief of staff Agus Supriatna said 72 bodies had so far been pulled from the rubble, and 23 of those bodies had been identified.
He said there was no way anybody could have survived the crash.
It is unclear whether the victims were military personnel or civilians. Smoke billowed from the site and several thousand people milled nearby. Rescue teams scrambled over the rubble, searching for any survivors.
The plane had traveled from the capital, Jakarta, and stopped at two locations before arriving at Medan. The air force is still to trying to determine how many people got off or boarded during that journey.
Supriatna said the aircraft was produced in 1964, but was well maintained and was regularly used to transport personnel. “It’s an all-weather aircraft, our mainstay for transport aircraft,” he said.
It is the third Indonesian Air Force Hercules to crash since 2001, when a Hercules overshot the runway and burst into flames with no casualties, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
In 2009, an Indonesian Air Force Hercules hit four houses before skidding into a rice field killing 95 people onboard and two on the ground, the group said.
In December, an Airbus A320 run by AirAsia crashed on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore, killing all 162 people onboard.
Mr Supriatna said the 50-year-old C130 Hercules had 12 crew and another 101 passengers on board when it took off from Soewondo Air Base in Medan shortly before midday (local time) on Tuesday.
Minutes into the flight, the pilot requested permission to return to the base.
The plane then banked to the right and plummeted into the ground, bursting into flames and wiping out buildings, including part of a hotel.
Indonesian military spokesman Major General Fuad Basya said the cause for the crash is yet unknown.
He said the plane did not have a black box flight record, which would make investigations into the crash difficult.
Dozens of people on the ground were also killed nearly ten years ago, when a commercial jet crashed in the same street.
Paul Okia
Happy Tours AFrica
happytoursug@gmail.com
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