14 foreigners among Garuda crash victims
JAKARTA (JP): The Garuda Indonesia plane crash has touched people from all corners of the world, with verification yesterday that at least 14 foreigners were among the 234 people killed in the tragedy.
The exact number of foreign victims and their nationalities vary but Antara reported yesterday that the bodies of 14 foreigners were being kept at Adam Malik Hospital.
Those that have been confirmed include two Britons, two Americans, six Japanese, a Malaysian and an Australian.
The British man killed in the Garuda Airbus crash last Friday arrived in Indonesia just one day before and was on the ill-fated flight because his original departure had been canceled.
Pete Wilson, 42, was a freelance consultant employed by telecommunications company PT Ericsson Indonesia to supervise the construction of a company tower in North Sumatra, a company spokeswoman told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.
She said: "Pete was due to fly to Medan on Thursday with a colleague but the flight was canceled. He then rebooked himself on GA-152.
"The other person, having heard how full the flight was, said he could wait until Monday but Pete said that someone had to go because there was so much work to do."
She said Wilson was survived by his wife Linda, a 12-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son.
She did not know where he was from in the United Kingdom.
"We are all very sad here in the office," she said. "We just can't believe that we have lost him."
The body would be repatriated either today or tomorrow, she said.
The remains of the other Briton on the flight, identified by the British Embassy in Jakarta as Sally Horseman, have still not been identified.
The embassy spokesman said: "We believe she is among the three unidentified Caucasian women who are still in the hospital in Medan. She was not buried in the mass grave this morning."
He said Horseman's relatives were so distraught by her death that they are not allowing any personal details to be released.
Five of the six Japanese passengers on board of the plane had been identified, Antara reported yesterday.
Japanese Counselor General in Medan, Hosomoto, was quoted as saying that the family of businessman Mr. Kudo -- the unidentified Japanese citizen -- was still trying to locate his remains at Adam Malik Hospital.
Today will be the last day for Kudo's family to identify their loved one, otherwise he will have to be buried with the other unidentified passengers in Medan.
According to Hosomoto, four of the Japanese victims would be cremated in Medan while the family of the fifth would have the body flown back to Japan.
Another foreign passenger on board was identified yesterday as Mr. Chin Siew Fook, a Malaysian businessman from Kuala Lumpur, Antara reported. His remains were cremated in Medan yesterday and his ashes taken home by his family.
Malaysian Consular General in Medan Mohamad Nor expressed the government's sincere gratitude to all parties who helped locate Chin's remains and the hospital's forensic team who helped identify the body. (jea/aan)