At least fifteen killed as plane crashes into shops
At least fifteen killed as plane crashes into shops
JAKARTA (JP): At least 15 people were killed when a light aircraft crash-landed into a busy shopping street in Bandung yesterday morning, officials in the West Java city said.
All four people on board the Baron Beechcraft B-58 trainer plane and 11 others on the ground were killed when the plane hammered four shops on Jl. Jamika and gutted them with the explosion. Two cars, two motorcycles and a rickshaw were also razed, witnesses said.
The Ministry of Transportation said the four people on board were killed and 17 on the ground were also victims. It did not say however whether the 17 include injured as well as the dead.
An official at the Hasan Sadikin hospital confirmed to The Jakarta Post last night that 15 charred bodies, 12 men and three women, were at its morgue.
Five others were undergoing treatment at the hospital's intensive care unit, all badly burnt, the official said.
Some of the injured were sent to other hospitals. The Immanuel hospital received seven, Rajawali took two and Kebon Jati one, a four-year old girl. Their conditions were not immediately known.
Rescue workers were still scouring the debris late yesterday looking for more bodies, Antara reported.
The plane crashed at 11.30 a.m., only minutes after it took off from the Husein Sastranegara airport in Bandung on its way to Halim Perdana Kusuma airport in Jakarta. The plane is owned by the government-owned pilot training center in Curug near Jakarta.
An airport official said two minutes before the crash, the pilot, 24-year old Elvan Ardi, contacted the control tower to inform of an engine problem when the plane reached an altitude of 500 feet.
The Ministry of Transportation said the plane was trying to return to Husein Sastranegara after it learned of the engine trouble.
Elvan, who came from Cimahi near Bandung, was taking three students with him, all from Jakarta, identified by Antara as 22- year old Emil Rahimil of Cilandak Barat, 21-year old Tasna Riansyah of Kebon Jeruk, Jakarta Barat, and 22-year old Samsyurizal of Pancoran.
The identities of those killed on the ground were not available.
An investigation team led by Director General of Air Transportation Zainuddin Sikado has been formed comprising officials of the directorate general, the Curug pilot school and the Husein Sastranegara airport.
Officials said that engine trouble was the probable cause.
Officials said Elvan was an experienced pilot who had taught at the Curug school since 1994. His three students were in the final phase of their "cross country" test, each one having already clocked 200 flying hours, Antara said. The four had left Curug in the morning for Bandung.
An unnamed source at the Curug school also told the news agency that the piston propeller plane had just been refitted with a new U.S.-made Continental engine. The engine had only clocked two hours and 25 minutes, according to the source.
The plane was bought by the Curug school from the American manufacturer in 1987.
A 31-year old woman who owned the store on Jl. Jamika 13 survived the ordeal by rushing out through the back door when the shop was engulfed by fire.
Liana, the woman, told Antara that she was cooking in the kitchen in the back of the building when she suddenly found herself trapped by a huge fire coming from the front of the store.
Liana however said that she believed her brother, 22-year old Jefri, and sister 29-year old Wiwi were among those who died. They were trapped in the middle of the house, she said.
Other witnesses said the plane knocked out electricity and telephone lines before striking the shops and exploding. The Bandung branch of PT Telkom said about 2,000 telephone lines in the area were disconnected as a result.
Among those who visited the scene of the crash yesterday were Col. Gaharudin G., the chief of the Husein Sastranegara Air Base, Siliwangi Military Command Chief Maj. Gen. Tayo Tarmadi and Col. Didi Widayadi, the Bandung Police Chief. (01/emb)